Folly Bah Thibault is a journalist, Principal Presenter for Al Jazeera English, based in Doha, Qatar. She is the founder and president of the NGO ‘Elle ira à l’école’ Fondation Kesso Bah- which promotes the education of young girls in Guinea and the West Africa Region. Folly is also Global Champion for Education Cannot Wait, the UN’s Global Fund for Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises. Folly joined Al Jazeera Media Network in 2010, having previously worked at the French news channel, France24 in Paris and Voice of America in Washington D.C. As such, she has covered some of the world's biggest news and interviewed some of the world's top leaders, newsmakers, and other influential people including Bill Gates, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and Nobel laureates Malala Yusufzai, Wole Soyinka and Dmitry Muratov. She is fluent in English, French and Peulh. And knows conversational Swahili."

1994-1998 – BA in International Relations, Baku Institute of Political Science and Social Management1998-2000 – MA in International Relations, Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan2000-2003 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs2003-2005 – Mission to OSCE, Vienna2005-2008 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs2008-2011 – Mission to EU, Brussels2011-2013 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs2013-2015 – Director, International Cooperation Dept., Ministry of EducationJune 2015-January 2017 – Deputy Chief of Staff, Ministry of EducationJanuary -June 2017– Chief of Staff, Ministry of EducationSince June 2017 – Deputy Chief, Secretariat of the First Vice-President of the Republic of AzerbaijanSince September 2020 - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Mazen Shaqoura is currently the Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has over 25 years of experience with the United Nations in human rights, rule of law, democratic development, good governance and program management. In his previous incarnations, Mr. Shaqoura was deployed in Tunis, Bahrain, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Sudan.He is a Palestinian national, and is fluent in Arabic, English and French. He holds a Master of Arts in Diplomacy.

Dr. Christina Schori Liang is Head of Counter-Terrorism and Preventing Violent Extremism at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) in Geneva, Switzerland. She offers training and strategic policy guidance both in Geneva and for global security actors worldwide including the United Nations, the European Commission, NATO and the OSCE. Dr. Liang is a prolific writer on extremism, terrorism, and transnational organised crime. Since 2002, Dr Liang has taught University courses. In 2016, she became an Adjunct Faculty member of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Sciences Po where she teaches courses within the Global Risks and Intelligence Studies departments. She holds a doctorate in International Relations and an MA in History and International Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.

Omid is a senior cyber security advisor and leader with substantial experience leading cyber security initiatives across commercial and government industries. He holds Global Head of Cyber Security Practice and Managing Director roles at Palantir Technologies. Omid has spent over a decade in the financial services and technology sectors designing and implementing strategies focused on threat intelligence and incident response. He has also held an external doctoral research supervisor role at Kingston University and contributed to multiple security communities in Europe, including ENISA on cyber security best practices and research schemes.

Ruth Margolies Beitler is a Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy, West Point, where she serves as course director for Comparative Politics, Middle East Politics, and Cultural and Political Anthropology. She has been the director of the Conflict and Human Security Studies Program (CHSS) since its inception in 2006. She is author of four books: Women and the Military: Global Lives in Focus, published by ABC-CLIO, 2021; Women’s Roles in the Middle East and North Africa (coauthored) published by Greenwood Press, 2010; The Fight for Legitimacy: Democracy vs. Terrorism (coauthored) published by Praeger in 2006; and The Path to Mass Rebellion: An Analysis of Two Intifadas published by Lexington Press in 2004. She is the author of numerous book chapters and articles. A graduate of Cornell University with a BA in Near Eastern Studies, Dr. Beitler holds a Master of Arts of Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, where she also received her Ph.D. in International Relations/Middle East Politics. She has lived and traveled extensively in the Middle East.

Safwan M. Masri is Dean of Georgetown University in Qatar and Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.  Prior to joining Georgetown, Professor Masri was Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University, and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He joined Columbia University in 1988 as a member of the faculty of Columbia Business School, and served as Vice Dean from 1993-2005. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européend’Administration des Affaires) in France. Masri is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (Columbia University Press, 2017). He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. Masri is also a trustee of International College, serves as a director of AMIDEAST and Endeavor Jordan. He was founding chairman of King’s Academy and the Queen Rania Teacher Academy, and served as an advisor to Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah.

Ambassador Thomas Greminger served as Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from July 2017 until July 2020. On May 1, 2021, he took over as Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP).  As Secretary General, he acted as an effective crisis manager supporting successive Chairmanships in an increasingly polarized environment. In the final months of his term, he dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, working to protect the health and safety of staff while ensuring that the OSCE continued to carry out its critical mandates and maintained business continuity.  Despite the highly polarized political climate, Ambassador Greminger promoted dialogue among the 57 OSCE participating States as one of his key priorities. He sparked informal discussions on emerging challenges and opportunities such as the importance of technology to all dimensions of security or the link between climate change and security.

Dr. Joris Larik is Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU, and International Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Senior Advisor at the Stimson Center’s Global Governance, Justice & Security Program. He is an expert in EU external relations and global governance reform. In 2022, he was appointed to the Committee on European Integration of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs and to the European Commission’s pool of arbitrators for disputes in the framework of bilateral trade agreements.  Dr. Larik's work has been acknowledged with several awards, including NATO’s Manfred Wörner Essay Award and the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best Thesis in Comparative Law from the European University Institute. He is a former Fulbright-Schuman Scholar and Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.  He is the author and editor of several books, including with Oxford and Cambridge University Press. He has published in leading international journals, including American Journal of International Law, Common Market Law Review, European Foreign Affairs Review, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, and Survival.  Dr. Larik’s international media appearances include Agence France-Presse, Al Jazeera, BBC World Service, CBC, EU Observer, The Hill, The Irish Times, Radio New Zealand, and Volkskrant.

Lise Morjé Howard is Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where she teaches and conducts research on matters of war and peace. She also serves as President of the Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS). Dr. Howard earned her A.B. in Soviet Studies from Barnard College of Columbia University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She studied Philology and Soviet Constitutional Law at Leningrad State/St. Petersburg State University during the collapse of the constitutional order. She has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the US Institute of Peace. She is the author of two award-winning books about different aspects of United Nations peacekeeping, both published by Cambridge University Press. She has conducted fieldwork in conflict zones in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Eurasia. Her scholarly articles have been published in the top scholarly and foreign policy journals such as International Organization, International Security, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy. She is fluent in French and Russian. Prior to beginning graduate school, she served as Acting Director of UN Affairs for the New York City Commission for the United Nations.

Dr. David Passarelli is Director of UN University’s Center for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) which is co-located in New York and Geneva. He has overall responsibility for the direction and administration of the Centre’s research and policy advisory activities. He is a member of UN University’s Senior Management Group, and serves as UN University’s representative to the UN High-Level Committee on Programmes (HLCP).  Between 2022-2023, Dr Passarelli led the Secretariat of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB). His research has been commissioned by UNICEF, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Coordination Office (DCO), and the UK Ministry of Defence’s Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC). Grants from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and several philanthropic foundations have supported his work. Dr Passarelli focuses predominantly on issues of global governance, migration, strategic foresight, international development, and global finance. He holds a Doctorate in International Development from the University of Oxford. His recent publications include: • 2023. Report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (New York: United Nations University).  • 2022. Stress-testing the UN’s regional prevention approaches (New York: United Nations University).  • 2021. Beyond Opportunism: The UN Development System’s Response to the Triple Planetary Crisis (New York: United Nations University).  • 2021. Governing Uncertainty (New York: United Nations University).

Hesham Youssef is a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (2019- present). He was a career diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt. From 2014-2019, he served as Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian, Cultural and Social Affairs of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and completed his term in July 2019. From 2001-2014, he served as a senior official in the Arab League, as Official Spokesman and later the Chief of Staff to Secretary General Amr Moussa from 2003- 2011. From 2012-2014, Mr. Youssef was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary General of the Arab League, Dr. Nabil Elaraby, on issues pertaining to crisis management as well as the reform of the Arab League. Mr. Youssef worked extensively on conflict resolution in the Middle East and in particular the Arab Israeli conflict, reconciliation in Iraq as and other regional conflicts and issues. He wrote several papers on conflicts and developments in the Middle East.

Maruan El-Krekshi is the Head of CMI’s Middle East and North Africa programme, which includes, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Maghreb-Sahel. Prior to joining CMI, El-Krekshi served as a Governance Programme Officer with UNDP in Yemen for 3 years, working on elections, human rights, transparency, justice sector and civil society capacity development related projects. He has also worked for the World Food Programme, where he served as a Policy and Programme Support consultant in the Office of the Executive Director, in addition to short assignments with UNHCR and UNDP programmes in Libya. He holds a Master’s Degree in Development Studies from the University of Helsinki.

On 1 April 2022, Mr. Richard Bennett was appointed as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.  Mr. Bennett has served in Afghanistan on several occasions in different capacities including as the Chief of the Human Rights Service with UNAMA. He has previously played a role in the promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan and supported the UN on human rights issues, such as protection of civilians, transitional justice, child rights, rule of law, rights of people with disabilities, protection of human rights defenders and economic, social and cultural rights.  Mr. Bennett served with the UN as the Representative of OHCHR and head of the human rights components of peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and South Sudan, as well as twice in Afghanistan (2003-07; 2018-19). He has been a long-term adviser to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.  Mr. Bennett was the Representative of OHCHR and head of OHCHR’s office in Nepal (2007-10), as well as Chief of Staff for the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and Special Adviser to the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights in New York.  Mr. Bennett worked for Amnesty International (2014–17) as its Asia-Pacific Program Director and later as head of Amnesty’s UN Office in New York. From mid-2019, he worked as a consultant on UN human rights assignments in Afghanistan, Myanmar and New York.  Mr. Bennett is currently a visiting professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden.

Since May 2020 Dr. Canan Atilgan the Middle East and North Africa department in the Department of European and International Cooperation. Prior to this, she was head of the Regional Political Dialogue Southern Mediterranean Regional Programme for four years and the South Caucasus Regional Programme in Tbilisi from 2011 to 2015 and the South Caucasus Regional Programme in Tbilisi from 2011. Her stations in the Konrad Adenauer Foundation also included office management in Thailand, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. Between 2005 and 2007 she was coordinator for European policy at the foundation headquarters in Berlin. She holds a PhD in Political Science with a focus on international relations.

Alex Thier is CEO of Lapis, a leading education, media, and communications company working across South and Central Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa. Alex was appointed by President Obama as Chief of Policy, Planning, and Learning at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and as the senior official in charge of assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan. In these roles, he coordinated policy on key priorities including sustainable development, technology and innovation, climate change and renewable energy, gender equality and economic empowerment, development finance, and democracy and governance. Alex managed 1000+ staff with over $10 billion in programs and oversaw the creation of the largest-ever U.S. investment in women’s empowerment and the first-ever U.S. Strategy to End Extreme Poverty. Alex previously served as Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London, a preeminent global think tank with programs and over 500 staff, fellows, and associates in 40 countries, and as CEO of a $100m+ global anti-trafficking fund. He was Co-Director of the bi-partisan Task Force on U.S. Strategy to Promote Democracy and Counter Authoritarianism, and has held appointments at Stanford University, Freedom House, the US Institute of Peace, and the United Nations.

Dr. Arnoldo André is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Republic of Costa Rica. He holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Previously, he served as a professor of International Law at the University of Costa Rica. Between 2010 and 2013, he held the position of President at the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, and from 1997 to 2022, he acted as the Honorary Consul of Norway in Costa Rica. He is also an attorney and a founding partner of Lexincorp Costa Rica. Dr. Arnoldo André's extensive background spans academia, law, and diplomatic roles, showcasing a breadth of experience in international relations, commerce, and legal practice. His contributions as an educator and a key figure in various organizations highlight his dedication to fostering relationships between countries and promoting legal expertise in Costa Rica and beyond.

Amb, Sani Bala did his NYSC in Imo State from July 1979 - July 1980 and in August of that year, joined the Ministry of External Affairs Lagos. While at headquarters he served in various departments and units beginning with Protocol Dept., (Liaison officer State House Marina, Lagos); Nigeria Pilgrims Board; Discipline Section; Inter African Affairs; Appointment, promotion and Establishment Div (APED); Consular and Immigration Dept; Middle East Division and office of the Hon. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs as Special Assistant from the Ministry and worked with five (5) different Ministers of State in that capacity (Amb. Zakari Ibrahim,Alhaji Saidu Isa, Chief Anthony Ani, Alhaji Hassan Paki and Alhaji Samaila Sambawa). From January, 1995 – December, 1996 Amb. Sani Bala served as an Honourable Commissioner and member of the Katsina State Executive Council on leave of absence on ground of Public Policy. He served as Hon. Commissioner for Trade and Commerce and latter was moved to the Ministry of Health, Social Development, Youth and Sports He also served in several Nigerian diplomatic and Consular missions abroad, between 1982- 86, Nigerian Embassy, Jeddah and later to the Consulate when the Embassy moved to Riyadh; 1988 – 92, Nigerian Embassy Cairo, Egypt as Counsellor and Head of Chancery; Sept,1997- Oct, 1998 Charge d'Affairs  At the Nigerian Embassy Dakar, Senegal; 1998-2001 Minister Counsellor and Head of Chancery in Nigerian Embassy Accra, Ghana; Jan, 2007- June,2008 Appointed Charge d'Affaires ENTITRE of Nigerian Embassy Tunis, Tunisia; June 2008 Appointed Consul General of Nigeria in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; December, 2011 Appointed Ambassador of Nigeria and on 12th June 2012 H.E. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan presented Ambassador Sani Bala with his letters of credence as Nigeria's first Ambassador to the State of Qatar. Shortly after, in October 2012 Amb. Bala was appointed a Federal Permanent Secretary after successfully passing the rigorous selection examination and interview.  He was posted to the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and on 24th August, 2013 he was redeployed to the Federal Ministry of Health where he retired on 15thApril, 2014 on the attainment of the mandatory retirement age of 60 years. The next day he started working for the former Chairman of PDP, H.E. Ahmadu Adamu Mu'azu as his Principal Secretary and retired from that post on 20th March, 2015. In February 2018, he joined the savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), a NGO founded by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the immediate past Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. In june 2020, Amb. Bala was appointed the Executive director of the Centre. A position he has been occupying to date.