The Festival of Politics and Ideas – 2026 State of Europe

Oday Abu Karsh is co-founder and Director of REFORM, where he works on governance, institutional reform and social transformation. He has served as a Policy Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme and worked with several international organisations on reform and development initiatives. Abukarsh has led work on amendments to the Palestinian Basic Law, Electoral Law and related regulations and contributed to developing methodologies for social transformation and conflict transformation. His work focuses on supporting institutional development and reform in complex political and social contexts.

Born in Austria, Josef Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s degree and a PhD in natural sciences. He has had an accomplished international career in space, combining more than 35 years’ work experience at ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency, the Asian Institute of Technology and the University of Innsbruck.

As Director General of ESA, Dr Aschbacher is responsible for the definition, implementation and development of Europe’s space infrastructure and activities, which include launchers, satellites performing Earth observation, navigation, telecommunication and space science, together with robotic exploration and ESA astronauts working on the International Space Station. He is responsible for an annual budget of €8.2 billion and a workforce of 6000 distributed across several establishments, principally in Europe.

Dawood is one of the most promising young journalists and scholars of his generation in the UK. He has been working for the BBC World Service in London as a Senior Broadcast Journalist and is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster, where he teaches Globalization, Power and International Governance. He joined the BBC in 1998 and also worked as the BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was also a visiting scholar at Ohio State University, USA. He holds three Bachelor’s and three Master’s degrees, including Science, Law, International Relations and Diplomacy. In 2010, Dawood became the youngest person to ever win the biggest award in the BBC, the “Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution”. He is also a poet/writer, calligrapher and painter/artist.

Terry is an accomplished and experienced entrepreneur and advocate for access to education and the expansion of entrepreneurship. He entered public service in 1999 when he was elected to the Nanaimo City Council, becoming British Columbia’s youngest-ever elected official. A former Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia, Terry is the author of The In-Credibility Factor, which highlights his desire for Canada to become a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. Terry was the founder and CEO of HiretheWorld.com and of Twinbro, a non-profit organisation that has helped over 25,000 students obtain millions of dollars in scholarships and financial aid. He is a past board member of Lift Philanthropy and worked with entrepreneurs to launch and grow businesses at Beech Partners.

Carl Bildt is a former prime minister and foreign minister of Sweden, where he led major liberal economic reforms and negotiated Sweden’s accession to the European Union. He has extensive experience in European and international affairs, having served as EU special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN special envoy to the Balkans and co-chair of the Dayton Peace Conference. Bildt also chaired the Global Commission on Internet Governance and served as WHO special envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

Olivier Blanchard is the Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus at MIT. He joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as the first C. Fred Bergsten Senior Fellow since 2015. Olivier has previously served as an economic counselor and director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund.

Anne Bouverot is France’s Special Envoy for AI and as such led the organisation of the 2024 AI Action Summit in Paris. An engineer with a PhD in artificial intelligence from the École Normale Supérieure, she has held senior leadership roles at Orange and served as CEO of the GSMA, the global association of mobile operators. She later led Morpho (Safran Identity & Security) and co-founded the Abeona Foundation, promoting responsible AI. She currently chairs the Board of the École Normale Supérieure and plays a key role in shaping both French and European AI strategy.

Cristina Caffarra is Co-Founder and Chairperson of EuroStack, where she leads the EuroStack Industry Initiative. An antitrust economist, economic and technology policy writer and keynote speaker, she is also Honorary Professor at University College London and co-founder and Steering Committee member of the Competition Research Policy Network at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Caffarra is the convener of The Perfect Storm conference and hosts the Escape Forward podcast. Her work focuses on competition, economic policy and technology, with a particular interest in Europe’s digital and industrial landscape.

Francesca Cavallo is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Undercats Media. She is the co-creator of the New York Times bestselling series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which became a global publishing phenomenon, selling 10 million copies and reaching readers in 50 languages.

Cavallo co-founded the children’s media company Timbuktu Labs in California in 2012 and received the Publishers Weekly StarWatch Award in 2018. She has since authored several internationally successful books, including Elves on the Fifth Floor, Doctor Li and the Crown-Wearing Virus, translated into 38 languages, and the autobiographical novel Ho un fuoco nel cassetto.

Since 2024, she has curated Maschi del Futuro, a rapidly growing European community and newsletter exploring how narratives around masculinity can be reimagined for future generations. In 2026, her work on the project was recognised with a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency.

Claudia leads the organisation’s strategy, research agenda, and direction for its action projects, and she co-leads the Deliberation & Technology (DelibTech) Network. She has co-authored numerous papers on scaling democratic innovation, AI and deliberation, democratising city planning, more-than-human governance innovations, and spatial design for democracy.

She has 15 years of experience in research, thought leadership, design and implementation with government and other organisations, and network convening on democracy innovation. Her interest began with research on populism, and the extent to which it is driven by people’s disillusionment with the political system and a lack of agency to shape the decisions affecting their lives.

Claudia helped design the world’s first permanent Citizens’ Assemblies in Paris, Ostbelgien, and Brussels, and numerous others since.

Thomas Dermine is a Belgian economist and socialist politician currently serving as Mayor of Charleroi, where he has anchored his commitment to economic renewal and social progress. He began his career at McKinsey and in venture building in London before returning to Belgium to coordinate the CATCH plan, a flagship initiative supporting industrial reconversion, innovation and job creation in a region deeply affected by restructuring. From 2020 to 2025, he was Belgium’s secretary of State for Recovery and Strategic Investments and for Science Policy, where he steered the country’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan and boosted investment in research and innovation. Deeply committed to linking European ambition with tangible local impact, Dermine promotes a model of competitiveness that is green, inclusive and rooted in strategic public investment.

Yolanda Díaz Pérez is Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister of Labour and Social Economy. As Labour Minister, she led landmark initiatives including the increase of the minimum wage, a flexible temporary employment regulation scheme that protected millions of workers and enterprises during the COVID-19 crisis, and legislation recognising labour rights for workers on digital delivery platforms. Díaz has also fostered extensive social dialogue, achieving over 20 major agreements, including comprehensive labour reforms, contributing to Spain’s lowest unemployment rate since 2008.

Valdis Dombrovskis has been European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, as well as Implementation and Simplification, since December 2024. Previously, he served as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, responsible for An Economy that Works for People and Trade. From 2014 to 2019, he was Vice-President overseeing the Euro, Social Dialogue and Financial Stability. Prior to this, Valdis was Latvia’s longest-serving Prime Minister (2009–2014). Earlier in his career, Valdis served as Finance Minister, and as a member of both the Latvian and European Parliaments, and worked as Chief Economist at the Bank of Latvia.

A serial entrepreneur and fintech expert from Lithuania, Daumantas Dvilinskas is the Co-Founding CEO of TransferGo, a London-based, high-growth and purely digital global money transfer service. Its innovative digital ‘local in, local out’ business model works with banks worldwide to enable cheaper, faster and safer cross-border money transfers. TransferGo’s main goal is to increase the accessibility of transfers to migrant workers, who make regular payments to their families back at home, by reducing costs and facilitating same-day purchasing power. Dvilinskas challenges monopolies in the banking industry by targeting niche customers with a superior product experience. He has also co-founded Pinevio, a social content discovery platform that enables users to discover content from people with shared interests. Dvilinskas is a recipient of the Global Lithuanian Award, which is bestowed upon Lithuanian diaspora professionals in recognition of their contribution to the economy, science, culture and international presence of Lithuania.

Since 2021, Megi Fino has been Albania’s Deputy Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. She is at the forefront of advancing her country’s European Union membership process as a negotiator for the acquis Chapter 31. Fino has been engaged at the UN and regional bodies to promote support for Ukraine and regional cooperation. She was previously an Integrity Consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focused on local governance reform and worked as a regulatory expert at Vodafone Albania. A lawyer by training, she includes Chinese among her many languages.

Adonis Georgiadis is the Greek Minister of Health and a senior political figure. A long-serving Member of Parliament, he has held ministerial roles across health, economic development, labour and shipping in successive governments led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. As Minister of Development and Investments, Georgiadis oversaw initiatives to support economic recovery and attract foreign investment following the COVID-19 pandemic. He previously served as Minister of Health under former prime minister Antonis Samaras, focusing on healthcare reform and the sustainability of Greece’s public health system.

Soulaima is a speaker, consultant, author, blogger and an active board member in several public and private companies. It is her vision to change the world to a better more tolerant place through trade and business, and relations between countries and people. She spends part of her time and own money travelling around the world to do “impact journeys”. The past year she has been to Mexico, UAE, India, Jordan, Myanmar and China to work with local entrepreneurs, young global leaders, local schools, change makers and NGOs. Since 2007, she has worked as an advisor and speaker for more than 1000 clients. She has received several prestigious awards among others the Rising Star, the Talent 100 price 2004, PowerWomen, 20 Greatest Nordic Thinkers. Soulaima holds an E-MBA from the Copenhagen Business School.

Tarja Jaakkola is NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments, leading work to develop and adopt innovative and interoperable capabilities across the Alliance. She previously served as Director General of the Resource Policy Department at Finland’s Ministry of Defence and as Finnish National Armaments Director. Jaakkola also held senior positions at the European Defence Agency, including Deputy Director of the European Synergies and Innovation Directorate and Head of its Industry Strategy and wider EU Policies Unit. Earlier in her career, she held various armaments, defence industry and market-related roles within Finland’s Ministry of Defence and Defence Forces.

Disa Jironet is a Dutch Public Prosecutor and author with a background in Dutch and international law. Specialised in the role of justice in society, her work adopts a new approach to criminal law by examining how societal systems and institutions can be shaped compassionately to better serve humanity. Her book “Crime and Compassion” argues for a more humane criminal climate. Acknowledging the complexity of human behaviour, Jironet remains critically optimistic that justice reform can move beyond the debate of hard or soft punishment and towards an evidence-based conversation about long-term sustainable justice and security.

Lubomila Jordanova currently serves as the CEO of Diginex, following its acquisition of Plan A, the climate-tech company she co-founded. Plan A provides software that helps businesses decarbonise and align with sustainability policies, working with over a thousand organisations, including major global companies and public institutions. Jordanova is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 3,500 businesses tackling climate change with technology, connected to over 500 advisors from venture capital, media and business. She previously worked in investment banking, venture capital and fintech across Asia and Europe. Jordanova has been recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice, Marshall Fund Fellow and Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs in Germany.

Dharmendra Kanani is Director of Policy & Programmes and Chief Spokesperson at Friends of Europe. Prior to joining Friends of Europe, Dharmendra was director of policy at the European Foundation Centre (EFC). He was the England director at the Big Lottery Fund, the largest independent funder in the UK and fourth largest in the world. Dharmendra has held senior positions in the public and voluntary sectors and advisor to numerous ministerial policy initiatives across the UK.

Kosta Karakashyan is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, choreographer, writer and activist. Karakashyan’s work includes film, video, dance, theatre and immersive performances that often confront social issues including LGBTQ+ rights in Eastern Europe, mental health and the climate. His Studio Karakashyan made the award-winning documentary dance film “Waiting for Color” about LGBTQ+ persecution in Chechnya. He is the creator of Bulgarian LGBTQ+ community platform Out.bg. As a dancer and choreographer, Karakashyan has collaborated with singer Rita Ora, worked with clients from Calvin Klein to Disneyland, and performed on TV and stage around the world.

Fritzi Köhler-Geib is a Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, responsible for the research centre, data and statistics, and risk control. She previously served as Chief Economist and First Vice President of KfW Group. Before that, she held senior roles at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, including as Lead Economist and Programme Leader for Central America. Köhler-Geib has extensive experience in international finance and economic policy, with a focus on financial crises, stabilisation and growth-enhancing reforms.

Gert Jan Koopman is the Director-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood. Prior to this, he served as the director-general of the European Commission’s budget department. In this role, he contributed to putting in place the European Union’s €800bn NextGenerationEU recovery plan, as well as the €18bn MFA+ for Ukraine. He has worked to enable its financing on the capital markets through a sovereign-style funding system. Having served the EU for nearly three decades, Koopman was previously in charge of state aid control at the Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition. His earlier assignments included senior management posts in the department for economic and financial affairs, the Commission’s economic service, as well as enterprise and industry, which supervises the smooth running of the single market. 

Andrius Kubilius is a Lithuanian politician currently serving as European Commissioner for Defence and Space. He previously served as Prime Minister of Lithuania, and as a Member of the European Parliament. Andrius is the former leader of the conservative political party Homeland Union (Lithuanian Christian Democrats).

Pascal Lamy is a French politician and the Vice President of the Paris Peace Forum, a new innovative global governance initiative. He served as the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for two consecutive terms, prior to which he was the European commissioner for trade and head of cabinet for former Commission president, Jacques Delors. Currently an associate professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Lamy also frequently lectures at the Institut Jacques Delors and speaks on issues related to globalisation, global governance, international trade, international economics and regional integration. He has written several publications on the European Union and the ‘harmonising’ of globalisation and is a Trustee of Friends of Europe.

Enrico Letta is Dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics, and Global Affairs, and President of the Jacques Delors Institute and AREL. He served as Prime Minister of Italy and has held multiple ministerial roles, including Minister for EU Affairs and Minister for Industry and Foreign Trade. Letta previously led the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and chaired the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs. He was tasked by European institutions to draft a Report on the Future of the Single Market, reflecting his expertise in European policy and governance.

Hanna Liubakova is a journalist and analyst from Belarus. She is a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and has written about the latest developments in Belarus for international outlets such as The Washington Post, The Economist, and others. In 2023, she won the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award and was a finalist for the 2021 European Press Prize. Liubakova began her career at the only independent Belarusian channel, Belsat TV, which was banned by the regime in Minsk. She later joined RFE/RL and worked in Prague, Czech Republic. Currently, she is working on a book about Belarus. Following the 2020 revolution, Hanna was forced to flee Belarus and later learned that she was on the regime’s wanted list. She has continued to report on the people’s resistance, which has become even more crucial amid the Belarusian regime’s participation in the war against Ukraine.

Cecilia Malan is a Brazilian journalist and London-based international correspondent for Rede Globo, one of Brazil’s leading media organisations. She joined Globo in 2005 and moved to its London bureau in 2011, reporting on major political, economic and social developments across Europe and beyond. Malan studied journalism at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and has lived in Brazil, the United States, France and the United Kingdom.

In the European Parliament, Eva Maydell is the vice-chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with the United States. Eva was the main Parliament rapporteur on the Regulation on Charges on Cross-border Payments as well as worked on several legislative files, part of the Digital Single Market Strategy – including the e-Privacy Regulation and the Directive for the Supply of Digital Content. She was also rapporteur for the EPP Group on the implementation of the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the New Skills Agenda and the Influence of technology on the future of the financial sector (FinTech).

Eva has been awarded the European Parliament’s MEP of the Year Award twice. She has also been included in FT’s own ‘New Europe 100′ ranking of CEE’s emerging change-makers, European Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and others.

Jan Mischke is a Partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey’s business and economics research arm, based in Zurich. He leads MGI’s research on productivity and prosperity, with a focus on regional and country competitiveness and growth, particularly in Europe, as well as infrastructure, construction, real estate and global wealth. Mischke is a frequent speaker on these topics and broader global trends. Before joining MGI, he spent 10 years as a consultant at McKinsey, advising clients across a range of industries and countries.

Vidisha Mishra leads programme and community engagement at the Global Solutions Initiative, including partnerships with the G20 and G7 processes and related multilateral groups. She brings a decade of experience working across international think tanks in Europe and Asia at the intersection of policy advice, programme management and strategic engagement. Before joining GSI, Mishra worked at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, where she led partnerships with UN agencies, civil society and governments. She previously led research on gender in economic diplomacy at the Observer Research Foundation. Her research focuses on global governance, gender equality, technology and society.

Before joining UNOPS, Jorge Moreira da Silva built up an extensive portfolio working in the public and development sectors, with a strong focus on climate change, energy and the environment. Notably, he directed the Development Co-operation Directorate at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and served as the Portuguese minister for the environment, territorial planning and energy. Formerly, as a member of the European Parliament, he authored the legislation that created the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme.

Mario Nava is the Director-General of DG EMPL of the EU Commission. Previously, he was the Director-General of DG REFORM and has held the role of Director and Head of Unit posts in the DG for Financial Services. He was also President of Italian Financial Market Authority. He teaches at Bocconi University and at Solvay Business School. Nava was notably awarded the title of Bocconi Alumnus of 2023.

Jens-Frederik Nielsen is Prime Minister of Greenland and leader of the centre-right Democratic Party. A social scientist by training, he has extensive experience in Greenlandic politics and public policy, having previously served as Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources. Under his leadership, the Democratic Party emerged as the largest party in Greenland’s 2025 election, reflecting its growing influence in Greenland’s political landscape.

Philippe Notton is the founder and CEO of SiPearl, the company building high-performance energy-efficient European processors for supercomputing and artificial intelligence.

His original vision of SiPearl came in 2015 when Philippe was leading a division of 2,400 engineers at STMicroelectronics. In 2017, he joined Atos to help set up the European Processor Initiative (EPI) consortium, which aims to foster the return of high-performance processor design to Europe. In June 2019, he launched SiPearl as a spin-off of the EPI with the support of the European Union. He assembled a team of experts and managers from Atos, STMicroelectronics, Marvell, Intel, Nokia and MediaTek and now employs 200 people.

SiPearl’s first generation processor, named Rhea1, will equip JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer. To date, SiPearl has raised a Series-A of €113m.

As a senior executive, Philippe Notton has built an outstanding track-record in the multimedia, semiconductor and security fields. Passionate about high technology and fast-moving environments, he has worked in France, the UK and the US for market-leading groups (Thomson, Canal+, LSI Logic, STMicroelectronics, Atos), as well as a successful startup (MStar Semiconductor, sold to MediaTek in 2012 for US$4B).

Philippe Notton is a Supélec engineer (1993) and has an Executive MBA from ESSEC & Mannheim (2008).

Luisa Ortega is President of Coca-Cola Europe. She previously served as President of Coca-Cola’s Africa Operating Unit and has held several senior leadership roles across Latin America and Africa since joining the company. Before Coca-Cola, Ortega spent more than 14 years at SC Johnson, working in leadership positions across Europe, the United States and Asia Pacific. She also serves as a board member of FoodDrinkEurope.

Péter Pető is a Hungarian political journalist, who currently works as the Editor-in-Chief of 24.hu. Previously, he was the deputy editor of the left-wing political daily Népszabadság until it was shut down following the publication of articles revealing scandals that implicated politicians close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Soon after its dissolution, he was shortlisted for the Reporters Without Borders’ Prize of Independence. Having started his career in sports journalism, Pető became increasingly politically engaged as the country’s media landscape became growingly turbulent. He aims to uphold independent journalism through the preservation of traditional and the adoption of new approaches to journalism to reach diverse audiences. He has also authored eight books, including novels and political essays.

Stanley Pignal writes the Charlemagne column on European affairs, and serves as the Economist’s Brussels bureau chief. His previous postings include covering economics and business out of Paris and Mumbai. Prior to that, he was the banking editor, overseeing coverage of financial institutions from London. Pignal joined the Economist in October 2012 from the Financial Times, having previously worked as an investment analyst in the energy sector.

As Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mihai Popșoi has played a leading role keeping Moldova on its path towards European Integration and resisting Russian attempts to undermine his country’s democracy. He underscores the need for deep reform to transform Moldovan society, clean up corruption and reduce the influence of oligarchs in politics, economy and the media. His party’s campaign for a vote in favour of Moldova’s European future in an October 2024 referendum was successful despite widespread Russian interference. Popşoi previously served as deputy speaker in the Moldovan Parliament and Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Jessika Roswall currently serves as European Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy. A lawyer by profession, she has extensive experience in Swedish and European policymaking, having served in the Swedish Riksdag and as Minister for EU Affairs and Nordic Cooperation. A member of Sweden’s Moderate Party, Roswall has also served as the party’s spokesperson on EU affairs.

Bart Sap was appointed Chief Executive Officer in May 2024, after serving as Executive Vice-President Catalysis from 2021 to 2024 and Senior Vice-President for Cobalt & Specialty Materials and Supply from 2020 to 2021. He joined Umicore in 2004 as controller for Cobalt & Specialty Materials and occupied several management functions in Korea and Belgium covering finance, supply and refining of battery raw materials, business development and operations. Bart holds a Master’s Degree in Commercial Science from Vlekho in Brussels, Belgium, with majors in Accountancy and Taxation.

As Managing Director of the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation, Ulrike is responsible for developing an integrated approach across the work of the Jacques Delors Institutes and Friends of Europe. She supports the implementation and operationalisation of the Foundation’s strategy, strengthening advocacy, citizen engagement, and collective impact across multiple European capitals. Ulrike comes from the private sector, most recently serving as Chief Sustainability Officer at Henkel AG, where she led a team of 50, reporting to the Executive Management Team and shaping strategy, business integration, data systems and reporting. Her previous roles include international positions at The Coca-Cola Company and RWE Thames Water across various European locations. She also brings extensive experience in European and global policy, having engaged on topics such as public-private partnerships, climate and energy transition, circular economy, and human rights. Ulrike is a German national and is based in Brussels.

Prior to her current roles as International Policy Director at the Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and International Policy Fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, Marietje Schaake served as a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands. She also contributes a monthly column for the Financial Times on technology and governance, and is the author of “The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley”.

Despina Spanou is the Deputy Director-General in charge of the Directorate for Cybersecurity and Trust at the European Commission, where she also oversees cross-cutting security issues. She previously served as Head of Cabinet to Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, leading work on security, migration and asylum, health, skills, education, culture and sport. Earlier in her career, Spanou was Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity at DG CONNECT, where she shaped EU cybersecurity policy and legislation. A founding member of Women4Cyber, she actively promotes the development of cybersecurity expertise across Europe.

Prior to his current assignment, Gerassimos Thomas served as the Greek deputy minister for environment and energy. He has held various positions at the European Commission, including as deputy director-general for energy, director of finance at the European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), head of cabinet and spokesperson for the economic and monetary affairs commissioner, and deputy spokesman for the Commission president. He is the former chair of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) Steering Board and previously sat on the board of directors of the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund.

Oana Țoiu is a Romanian social entrepreneur-turned-politician who currently serves as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of USR (Renew Europe), one of the country’s ruling coalition parties. She previously held leadership roles in the Chamber of Deputies as Vice-President and Chair of the Labour and Social Protection Committee, where she championed legislation to improve flexible work schemes, expand housing rights for victims of domestic violence, and strengthen protections for single-parent doctors. Before entering politics, Oana built a career in social innovation, including as an executive at Mesteshukar ButiQ, a network of Roma artisans and international designers, and as co-founder of Social Innovation Solutions, which empowers entrepreneurs, NGOs, youth and policymakers to address future challenges. She remains committed to advancing inclusive policies that bridge governance, business and civil society.

Karien van Gennip’s term as the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment in the Netherlands ended on 2 July 2024. She is also a former Dutch state secretary of economic affairs and has previously served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party. Van Gennip has held various executive roles icluding as CEO of Cooperatie VGZ and at ING Group, including as the CEO of ING Bank France. Her extensive experience also includes several board-level positions, such as at TomTom N.V., the Oranje Fonds, INSEAD, and the International Chamber of Commerce.

Jan-Willem van Putten is a Dutch social entrepreneur and policy expert. He is co-founder of both The School for Moral Ambition and Training for Good, which focus on priming a new generation of leaders to confront pressing global challenges and make a lasting impact on society. Through his work, he strives not only to talk about a better world, but also to take action towards one. As Fellowship Director at The School for Moral Ambition, van Putten manages programmes that empower individuals to drive change in sustainable food production and tobacco industry control. Training for Good works to equip young European policymakers and journalists to recognise and reduce risks from emerging technologies.

Prior to his current position as CEO of Enabel, Jean Van Wetter was the Executive Director of the NGO Humanity and Inclusion/Handicap International and lived in several countries in Africa, Europe and Asia. He is a frequent panelist on issues related to international cooperation and sustainable development goals. Van Wetter started his career as a strategy consultant for Arthur Andersen before moving into the international cooperation sector.

Gelsomina Vigliotti has been a Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2021, and is a Member of the Board of the European Investment Fund (EIF). Before joining the EIB, she served as Director General of the Italian Treasury and held senior roles at international institutions including the World Bank, the IMF and the Bank of Italy.

Gaia Vince is a science writer and broadcaster, who explores the interplay between human systems and the planetary environment. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Anthropocene Institute at University College London (UCL) and a host of BBC Inside Science. Her first book, “Adventures In The Anthropocene”, won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize. Her latest book, “Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval”, explores global migration and planetary restoration in a radical call to arms.

Mechthild Wörsdörfer is Deputy Director-General at the European Commission’s DG Energy, where she is in charge of the coordination of the just and green energy transition. This includes steering the work on REPowerEU, accelerating the deployment of renewables and energy efficiency measures and ensuring the EU’s security of supply. Wörsdörfer is also responsible for the relations with the Energy Community, and steers the bilateral relations with Ukraine, Moldova, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Prior to this, Wörsdörfer was the director responsible for sustainability, technology and outlooks at the International Energy Agency (IEA); and held various roles at DG Energy, including director in charge of renewables, research and innovation, energy efficiency; and director for energy policy, international relations, legal aspects and economic analysis. Previously, she was head of Unit on the 2030 Energy and Climate Framework and served in the Cabinet of Erkki Liikanen, former European commissioner for Enterprise Policy and Information Society.

Currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Antonio oversees the philanthropic arm of Thomson Reuters, leading on communications, monitoring and evaluation activities as well as the development functions of the organisation. Prior to his present role, Antonio worked as the Executive Producer at Bloomberg Television where he was in charge of news, factual programmes and documentaries for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He is also a member of the Pioneers Class at Stanford Graduate School of Business for the LEAD Program in Corporate Innovation.

George Zeidan is the country director for the Carter Center in Israel and Palestine. He is a co-founder of Right to Movement Palestine, an initiative that uses sports to highlight the realities of Palestinian life under occupation.