Ms. Altangerel has been UNDP Kazakhstan Deputy Resident Representative for Programme and Operations from 2014 and until now. She is a seasoned international development practitioner with more than fifteen years of experience and a wide range of multi-disciplinary expertise. She has managed complex development initiatives in both developed and developing countries, and has published policy research papers and reports on economic resilience, local development, scaling up development successes, and the Millennium Development Goals implementation. From 2007-2014, Ms. Altangerel served as a Policy Advisor on MDGs, local/urban development and poverty reduction at the Bureau of Development Policy at UNDP HQ, covering mainly Eastern European and Central Asian countries. From 2005-2007, Tuya served as the Assistant Resident Representative at UNDP in Kyrgyzstan, and as a team leader at UNDP Tajikistan.

Prior to joining UNDP, she managed policy research and advocacy projects at the World Bank and CIVICUS-World Alliance for Citizen Participation, and worked as a consultant on social and economic assessments in the Environmental Resources Management. Tuya’s specialization is in sustainable livelihoods and environmental and social impact analyses. Tuya obtained her Master of Science in International Development Management from the London School of Economics, and a BA in International Relations and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Tuya is a national of Mongolia.

Nicholas You is a veteran urban specialist and thought leader. He served as the senior policy
advisor to UN-Habitat and the manager of the Habitat II Conference (Istanbul 1996). He is
the founder and honorary chairman of the UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign Steering
Committee, immediate former chairman of the Assurance Group for Urban Infrastructure of
the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, immediate former co-President of
the Global Cities Business Alliance, and is currently the Chair of the Urban Strategy and
Innovation Council for ENGIE. He is a board member of Citiscope, the Huairou
Commission, the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Guangzhou Institute for
Urban Innovation, and an adjunct to the Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore. He regularly
advises central and local governments, technology companies and civil society organisations
on urban governance, urban innovation and urban sustainability.

Yoshioka Tatsuya is Founder and Director of the Peace Boat Group, Japan’s largest cruise organization.

Founded in 1983, Peace Boat is a thriving social business that has organized over 90 voyages, including 60 around the world cruises.

Peace Boat combines commercial cruise elements with lifelong learning, and innovative people-to-people exchange programs.

Under Yoshioka’s leadership, Peace Boat’s is developing the world’s greenest cruise ship. The 10-mast Ecoship will be a flagship for commitment to global sustainability.

Yoshioka has addressed United Nations’ bodies on issues including a culture of peace, and is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee.

International Consultant in Humanitarian, Refugees, International Law, Human Rights, legal consultancy, and political analysis, and studies. Former UNHCR s/m, international Consultant for UN organizations, and NGO around the globe. Founder, and president of ” Humanists without Borders”- voluntarily humanitarian acts for less fortune persons.  Researcher, and publisher on International relations, Public Governance, and UN reforms.

In the wake of a promising career in finance, Yonathan Parienti resolved to found Horyou, the social network for social good. His strong knowledge of the international financial markets, drawn from his former senior executive responsibilities in major global banking groups such as JP Morgan Chase, Bank of China, and Julius Baer, added to his acknowledgement of the growing importance of the Internet. The infinite types of connections that it offers led him to envision a humanistic approach to technology in the form of a platform that is at the service of the promotion of social good and global impact.

With the growing importance of social networking, he saw the challenge of combining communication with technology to promote and advance ideas, projects, and actions at all levels – local, national, and global, and to encourage and help Internet users everywhere to connect for good. In February 2016, Parienti introduced Spotlight – the first Global Social Currency – to be used within the Horyou community with the aim to promote economic inclusion by distributing capital through social media.

Horyou’s major initiatives and achievements include SIGEF, the Social Innovation and Global Ethics Forum held annually, the Horyou Village of the Arts, Culture and Diversity, which took place in Cannes, France, during the world famous Film Festival in 2015, Horyou TV and Horyou Magazine, and the Global digital campaign #GreatDoingGood. In addition to being Horyou’s CEO, Parienti is also one of the the founders and General Secretary of the Horyou Foundation that supports positive initiative and solidarity in all human fields of activity on a global scale.

Yonathan Parienti, a strong believer in the importance of building bridges between peoples and cultures, is also convinced of the vital need to bring together the online and offline worlds. He is a regular speaker at international forums and gatherings on the subject of “connecting for good” and has notably spoken at the UNESCO conference on “Youth and the Internet,” as well as at the NGO alliance for the Millennium Development Goals. More recently, he conveyed his interventions during the UBS Philanthropic Forum, the International Conference on Human Rights in Doha, or related to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals “SDGs” chaired by UNITAR at the United Nations, on – Spotlight, Revolutionizing Philanthropy; with the first digital currency for economic inclusion, supporting the implementation of the SDGs.

Born on May 10, 1954, Dr. Kodzo K. Alabo was educated at the University of Ghana, Legon and Kiev State University (KSU), Kiev in the Ukraine. He followed an MSc degree in International Economic Relations at KSU’s Faculty of International Relations and International Law in 1983 with a PHD dissertation on the theme: “The UN Economic Commission for Africa and Issues of Inter-African Economic Cooperation and Integration” and was awarded a doctorate degree in International Economic Relations in 1986.

Dr. Alabo’s recruitment into the Ghana Foreign Service in November 1987 was followed by several years of service at the Ministry’s Economic Relations Bureau; later he was assigned to the Minister for Foreign Affairs as a Research Assistant.

He served at the Ghana Embassy in Rome as Counsellor (1994-1998) and as Minister-Counsellor at the Ghana Embassy in Luanda, Angola (1999-2003). Between 2006 and 2008 Dr. Alabo was assigned to the Ghana Embassy in New Delhi, India as Minister Plenipotentiary and later to the Moscow Mission from 2008 to 2010.

On his return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Dr. Alabo served as the Director of the Africa and Regional Integration Bureau from November 2010 to June 2014. As the Government’s chief adviser on African, A.U. and ECOWAS affairs, Dr. Alabo travelled the length and breadth of the African continent while engaging in bilateral and multilateral business with African countries.

In June 2014 Dr. Kodzo K. Alabo was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Ghana to the Russian Federation, with concurrent accreditation to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Moldova, Belarus and Ukraine. He serves in this position to date.

In 2015 Dr. Alabo was appointed the Commissioner General of Section for Ghana for the International Exhibition on Future Energy in Astana, Kazakhstan, scheduled for the period, June 10 to September 10, 2017.

Dr. Alabo holds post-graduate diplomas in Management and Public Administration (Greenhill, Accra, 1990) and International Relations (Nairobi, 1993). Besides English, he is fluent in Russian and French and has working knowledge of Italian and Portuguese.

Dr. Alabo is married with two children and his hobbies include evangelism, reading and lawn tennis.

From December 2012 till now works at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Kazakhstan as the Child Rights Monitoring Systems specialist.

In 2008-2012 worked the Senior Specialist at the Eurasian Development Bank at the Strategic Planning and Analytics department.

In 1998- -2008 worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in capacity of coordinator of the UNDP programs and projects in Kazakhstan.

Was a member of the peer review panel for the evaluation function of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

In 1993–1995 worked at the International Relations Department of the al-Farabi Kazakh State National University.

Graduated from the al-Farabi Kazakh State National University, Philosophy Department. Holds MA in Political Science from the Oklahoma State University, USA.

Mr. Peter K. Biwott has been appointed as Trade Development Manager at the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He has a vast experience on economic, trade, investment, and industrial policy development, research, and analysis on regional integration, private sector development planning, macroeconomics and public finance, as well as monitoring and evaluation. He holds economics degree from Kenyatta University and a Master degree in Development Economics from International Institute of Studies, The Hague, the Netherlands.

Mr. Peter Biwott is a beneficiary of the prestigious Joint Japan World Bank Graduate Scholarship. He also possesses macroeconomics policy, research, and analysis qualifications from Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis. He has contributed to publications at the Journal of World Economic Research on trade, regulatory policies, investments, and economic growth.

Kiala Pierre graduated from Madras Polytechnic Institute in India, 1976. He’s currently the Director of the International Cooperation Office of the Ministry of Energy and Water of the Republic of Angola.

Prior to this position, he was the Deputy Director of Cambambe Hydroelectric Power Station; Head of Department of Safety and Environment of ENE (Angola Public Power Utility); Director of The Electricity Training Center under the Ministry of Energy and member of the Steering Committee of the Kafwe Training Center; and member of the Environment Sub-Committee of the Southern Africa Power Pool. He’s also a former chairman of the Executive committee of the Central Africa Power Pool.

He is in Astana Expo 2017 as Deputy Commissioner of the Angola Pavilion.

Prior to being appointed as Director General to the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A), Dr. Begashaw was the Director of the Columbia Global Centers for Africa as part of the Earth Institute (EI). He joined the EI in January 2009 as a Senior Agriculture Policy Specialist for Eastern and Southern Africa, and soon became the Director of the MDG Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. He has served as the Associate Director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center of the EI. Dr. Begashaw has over 20 years of experience in agriculture extension and rural development, ranging from a grass-roots development agent to the Minister of Agriculture for Ethiopia.

In the past three years, Dr. Begashaw has done extensive consulting work for several international organizations in the area of food security, poverty reduction and investment. Dr. Begashaw earned his MPA degree from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, M.Sc. from University of Reading and a B.Sc. from Addis Ababa University, Almay College of Agriculture. He also holds a Ph.D. in agricultural policy from Texas A&M University where he was a Borlaug Fellow.

Diala Beinke is a strategic and technically minded geological engineer and energy advisor, established through 10 years of engineering evaluation, project and risk management experience, predominantly with the multinational, Chevron Corporation. Diala has a track record for successful execution of process reforms, best exemplified in the fields of reserves maturation and hydraulic network restoration.

In recent years, she has broadened her attention to the entire energy equation at large and is passionate about leveraging her breadth in natural resources and her experience in the oilfield sector to pioneer integrated investment criteria and solve the humanitarian conundrum of sustainable and diversified energy supply.

Michael Eves is currently Group Chief Actuary at Swiss Reinsurance Group. He has worked in numerous roles for the Company over many years, both in London and at the Zurich Headquarters. Swiss Re has a long tradition of contributing to society beyond its business and through the Swiss Re Foundation empowers communities to build resilience in the areas of water, climate, natural hazards and other topics relevant to society. Additionally Swiss Re was the insurance industry sector leader in the 2016 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the third consecutive year and the tenth time since 2004. In addition to his global actuarial  role Michael is also a non-executive director to two UK insurance companies whom provide important insurance and pension coverage to their policyholders and as well as he serves on committees of the International Actuarial Association.

Libby Davy, FRSA is a purpose-led leadership coach, facilitator and organisational development professional. Her work is linked to the UN Sustainability Goals and mindful, systemic approaches with a gender lens.

Her background is in strategic stakeholder relations, education and arts – having won international awards and scholarships. She is the inventor and co-founder of social enterprise start-up Message Eggs, trustee and advisor to the Robin Hood Health Foundation, a Fellow of The RSA and network lead for Greater Brighton UK, where she is based. Australian by birth, Libby is also mother of a teenage girl at United World College, an activist, artist, philanthropist, wellbeing lead for a spiritual retreat community and proud to call herself a home-maker.

Libby has developed her podcast series “The Bee & The Flower – pollinating social good”. Founder Yonathan Parienti was our inaugural interviewee in Geneva this spring

Horyou Advisor, Strategic Communication, Public Policy Communication, and Corporate Law. Professor of International Communication and of International Marketing and Management.

Vívian Soares is a Brazilian journalist and content marketing professional who is currently based in Barcelona. She holds a Masters in Economic Journalism (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo) and a specialization in European Studies (Hogeschool Utrecht and Danish School of Media and Journalism). A serial traveler and curious writer, she has covered international politics, entrepreneurship, social innovation, careers and education in many languages and countries. She is currently Media and Content Coordinator for Horyou and edits Horyou blog.

Experienced HR Director CIS with over 16 years experience leading the whole cycle HR functions in TOP-5 federal companies in financial and real sector of economy. In 2015 listed among top-50 HRD Russia. Speaker at international conferences on issues of HR strategy, employee engagement and internal communications.
Senior certified HR Profeccional SHRM (Feb 2015). Named among EY Russia Women leaders (2017).
Researcher in public utilities sector, Russian power industry. In 2013 launched the monograph “Natural monopolies effectiveness. Optimization within the power industry”.