UN Leaders Roundtable Lunch – How to leverage AI in the UN in support of safe, responsible and equitable AI?

Doreen Bogdan-Martin took office as Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. Ms Bogdan-Martin was elected as ITU’s first-ever female Secretary-General by Member States at the Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest, Romania.

Ms Bogdan-Martin was previously the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau. She took office on 1 January 2019, becoming the first woman in ITU history to hold one of the organization’s top elected management positions.

Dr. Rumman Chowdhury is a data scientist and social scientist. She is the CEO of the tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence, which builds a community of practice around evaluations of AI models, as well as the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. Dr. Chowdhury is also Responsible AI Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Previously, Dr. Chowdhury was the Director of the ML Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability (META) team at Twitter, as well as the as Global Lead for Responsible AI at Accenture Applied Intelligence. She was named one of Time’s 100 most Influential People in AI, BBC’s 100 Women, Worthy Magazine’s Top 100, recognized as one of the Bay Area’s top 40 under 40 and named by Forbes as one of Five Who are Shaping AI. Chowdhury holds two undergraduate degrees from MIT, a master’s degree in Quantitative Methods of the Social Sciences from Columbia University, and a doctorate in political science from the University of California, San Diego.

Vincent Vanhoucke is a Distinguished Engineer at Waymo. His research has spanned many areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, from speech recognition to computer vision and robotics. His Udacity lecture series has introduced over 100,000 students to Deep Learning. He founded the Robotics research team, now part of Google DeepMind, and is President of the Robot Learning Foundation, which organizes the Conference on Robot Learning, now in its eighth year. He holds a doctorate from Stanford University and a diplôme d’ingénieur from the École Centrale Paris.

Lane Dilg is the Head of Strategic Partnerships on the Global Affairs Team at OpenAI, where she supports OpenAI’s mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity. Prior to joining OpenAI, Lane spent more than 15 years in the public sector, including advising U.S. Department of Energy leadership on the deployment of billions of dollars in public investment in clean energy technologies; managing a city through the COVID-19 pandemic; drafting and defending precedent-setting public health, affordable housing, and worker protection laws; counseling CXO leadership of a global research university and leading health care system; prosecuting child exploitation offenses as a federal prosecutor; and serving as counsel on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, & Homeland Security. Lane is a graduate of Yale Law School, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Juan M, Lavista Ferres is currently the Chief Scientist and Lab Director of the Microsoft AI For Good Research Lab, where he works with a team of data scientists and researchers in AI, Machine Learning and statistical modeling, working across Microsoft AI For Good efforts. These efforts includes projects in AI For Earth, AI for Humanitarian Action, AI For Accessibility and AI For Health.

Juan joined Microsoft in 2009 to work for the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (EXP) where he designed and ran randomized control experiments across different Microsoft groups. Juan also worked as part of the Bing Data Mining team, where he led a group applying data mining, machine learning, statistical modeling and online experimentation at a large scale as well as providing data services for Bing.

Juan started the Microsoft efforts related to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), and his work has been published in top academic Journals including Pediatrics. His work has been covered in New York Times, CNN, Chicago Tribune, USNews, USAToday , and over 100 news outlets around the world.

Juan is involved in working to define the data science discipline within Microsoft, and is currently the editor of the Microsoft Journal of Applied Research (MSJAR).

Before joining Microsoft, Juan was the CTO and co-founder of alerts.com. Previously, he spent 6 years in Washington working at the InterAmerican Development Bank applying data science to understand the impact of programs for reducing poverty and inequality in Latin-America and the Caribbean. Juan has two computer science degrees from the Catholic University in Uruguay, and a graduate degree in Data Mining and Machine Learning from Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Kirkland, WA, with his wife and three children. He has been a speaker in the US at Strata, IEEE, Berkeley, Cornell, and in many countries including Canada, Switzerland, Argentina, Colombia , Costa Rica, and Uruguay, and he also was a TedX Speaker.

Dr. Geiss brings to the position over twenty years of experience in peace and security, with focus on the impact of new technologies in these areas. Most recently, he served as Director of the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security at the University of Glasgow and as the Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He was a Visiting Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris.

He has managed large-scale research projects and held multiple posts in academia, including as Visiting Professor for the University of Vienna (2017), Distinguished Guest Professor for the Institute for International Peace and Armed Conflict in Bochum (2016), and Visiting Fellow for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin (2016). He was a Professor of Public International and European Law at the University of Potsdam (2011-2013) and Research Project Director for the Collaborative Research Center at the Freie Universität Berlin (2014-2017).

He served as Legal Adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Legal Division for Geneva/New York (2007-2010) and Geneva (2004-2005).

Dr. Geiss holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Kiel and obtained an LL.M. in international legal studies from the New York University.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Mr. Sameer Chauhan as the Director of the United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC) on 1 December 2019.

As the head of the organization, he has the responsibility to lead all aspects of UNICC’s strategy and operations, to facilitate the provision of services to more than 100 Clients and Partner Organizations, to establish the UNICC strategy, to develop a biennial business plan and budget and to implement the approved plan. He is accountable to the UNICC Management Committee (MC) that governs the organization and represents the entire United Nations system.

Mr. Chauhan effectively led a strategic transformation of UNICC with the advice and backing of his board. This has allowed UNICC to become the preferred strategic digital partner for the whole UN system. The organization has successfully built capabilities in areas such as cybersecurity, data, AI, crypto and automation, as well as in key business areas like treasury, finance and HR. He started his career at UNICC in August 2015 in New York as Chief of Clients and Projects.

Previous Experience

Mr. Chauhan has over twenty years of prior experience in the public and private sectors and an educational background in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Before UNICC, Mr. Chauhan was the Head of Knowledge Management and Digital Marketing IT for Deutsche Bank (DB) Asset and Wealth Management. He played several roles at DB over eight years, including as the COO for an IT division of approximately 800 staff and as the product manager responsible for a multi-billion-dollar trading platform. He also spent several years as a consultant for Deloitte, working across various industries including financial services, public sector, telecom, manufacturing and software.

Gita Gopinath is the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as of January 21, 2022. In that role she oversees the work of staff, represents the Fund at multilateral forums, maintains high-level contacts with member governments and Board members, the media, and other institutions, leads the Fund’s work on surveillance and related policies, and oversees research and flagship publications.

Ms. Gopinath previously served as the Chief Economist of the Fund from 2019-22. In that role, she was the Economic Counsellor of the Fund and Director of its Research Department. She helmed thirteen releases of the World Economic Outlook, including forecasts of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global economy. She co-authored the “Pandemic Paper” on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world and led to the creation of the Multilateral Task Force made up of the leadership of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and WHO to help end the pandemic and the establishment of a working group with vaccine manufacturers to identify trade barriers, supply bottlenecks, and accelerate delivery of vaccines to low- and lower-middle income countries. She also worked with other Fund departments to connect with policy makers, academics, and other stakeholders on a new analytical approach to help countries respond to international capital flows via the Integrated Policy Framework.

Prior to joining the IMF, Ms. Gopinath was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and of Economics at Harvard University’s economics department (2005-22) and before that she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business (2001-05). Her research, which focuses on International Finance and Macroeconomics, is widely cited and has been published in many top economics journals. She has authored numerous research articles on exchange rates, trade and investment, international financial crises, monetary policy, debt, and emerging market crises.

Ms. Gopinath is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Econometric Society, and a member of the Group of Thirty. She has previously served as the co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a member of the economic advisory panel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Ms. Gopinath was born in India and is a U.S. national and an overseas citizen of India. She has received numerous awards and commendations. In 2021, Financial Times named her among the ‘25 most influential women of the year’, the International Economic Association named her the Schumpeter-Haberler Distinguished Fellow, the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association recognized her with the John Kenneth Galbraith Award, and the Carnegie Corporation named her among ‘Great (American) Immigrants’.

Mounir Tabet took up his official functions as Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on 7 September 2018.

Prior to that, Mr. Tabet served as the UNDP Country Director for Iraq (2016-2018), where he oversaw the programme on stabilization and transition.

From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Tabet served as the United Nations and UNDP Resident Coordinator in Tunisia, providing various services to the transition, including electoral support, constitution-making, parliamentary effectiveness and anti-corruption. From 2007 to 2013, Mr. Tabet was the Country Director of UNDP Egypt, where he led United Nations support to development efforts. From 2004 to 2007, Mr. Tabet was the Senior Programme Advisor for the Regional Bureau for Arab States at UNDP in New York. Between 1989 and 2003, Mr Tabet served in a variety of country and headquarter positions with UNDP. Prior to joining UNDP, he worked with the North-South Institute, the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, and the University of Ottawa.

Mr. Tabet completed an MA in Public Administration at Harvard University. He also holds an MA in Economics from the University of Ottawa.

• An information technology visionary possessing the unique skill of both strategic and tactical thinking.
• Understands the importance and value Information Technology can provide to an organization and has the leadership, business, and technical experience to ensure success in any environment.
• Goal-oriented and technically sophisticated, with experience in planning, acquiring, developing, and implementing complex information technology solutions to address emerging business opportunities.
• Focused on achieving results while formulating and implementing advanced technology and business solutions to meet a diversity of needs.

Golestan (Sally) Radwan (B.Sc., MBA, M.Sc.) is a Computer Scientist with expertise in AI and emerging technologies. Prior to UNEP, Sally served as Advisor to the Egyptian Minister of ICT, where she led the development and implementation of Egypt’s national AI strategy. During this time, she served as an expert and delegate of Egypt to several international organizations working on AI Policy and Regulation including UNESCO, WIPO, ITU, and OECD. She also championed and led two working groups within the African Union and League of Arab States to unify regional efforts around Responsible AI. Sally previously held several executive positions in the technology industry over 17 years, working in Germany, Austria, the UK and the US for companies including Novell GmbH, Avaya Inc. and NTT Data Europe. She earned a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Cairo University and an MBA from London Business School, as well as an MSc in Clinical Engineering and Healthcare Technology Management from City University of London. She is currently finalizing her PhD thesis, focusing on AI explainability and its ethical considerations in metagenomics at the Royal Holloway University of London.

Robert Opp is the Chief Digital Officer of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations’ global sustainable development organization working across 170 countries globally. UNDP adopted its second Digital Strategy in 2022, which sets out a vision to create a world in which digital is an empowering force for people and planet. Rob leads the agency’s digital transformation, an organization-wide effort, to accelerate achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and ensure no one is left behind.

Under his leadership, UNDP’s Chief Digital Office supports more than 120 countries in building open, inclusive and rights-based digital transformations. It also brings expertise, insights and lessons from the country-level to inform global digital policy, to ensure that technologies, including digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence accelerate sustainable development. Robert also leads UNDP’s own internal digital transformation effort.

Prior to this role, Robert served as Director of the Innovation and Change Management Division within the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where he established an in-house ‘Zero Hunger’ innovation accelerator and created an award-winning crowdfunding smartphone app, ShareTheMeal.

Ms. Hélène Molinier is the Senior Advisor on Digital Cooperation and the Thematic Lead for the GEF Action Coalition on Innovation and Technology at UN Women.  

She was the Substantive Lead for the 67th session of Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) is the author of the report of the UN Secretary General for CSW67 on “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”. She is also the author of the UN Women position paper “Placing Gender Equality at the Heart of the Global Digital Compact” and the policy paper on “Leveraging Digital Finance for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment”. 

Helene joined UN Women in 2018 and has over 20 years of experience with a number of organizations, including UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, The Global Fund, IDLO and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs where she successfully developed and implemented innovative programming initiatives, including digital tools for youth empowerment, innovative finance mechanisms for biodiversity conservation, innovative legal preparedness frameworks, interactive capacity building methodologies and innovative grant making for legal empowerment and access to justice for vulnerable women. Her experience includes providing support for policy and regulatory reforms; strategic programming support to country offices, leading the design and implementation of large multi-stakeholder partnerships, developing inclusive and gender-transformative digital tools, frontier technology and social innovation. She has lived and worked in Morocco, South Africa, Benin, Congo Republic, Switzerland, Sri Lanka and Netherlands.  

A national of France, Hélène holds a master’s in International Law and a master’s in Diplomacy and International Relations from Paris XI University.   

The Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development oversees the Organization’s normative contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals, in addition to supporting and advancing the application of strategies and interventions for sustainable industrial development in the environment, energy, and SME areas. Advancing competitiveness and job creation are also key impact dimensions for the Directorate, in addition to the advancement of digitalization and artificial intelligence.  Mr Zou is also the Director General’s Special Representative for the G77 and China.

At UNIDO since 2013, Zou is the architect of UNIDO’s Programme for Country Partnership, and has guided the Organization’s field and strategic engagements.

Before joining UNIDO, he performed multiple roles, including as Deputy Director General of International Department at the Chinese Ministry of Finance, Alternate to the Chinese Executive Director at the World Bank, and Global Environmental Facility Operational Focal Point for China.

Zou holds a Ph.D. in Economics from China’s Ministry of Finance Graduate School, Research Institute for Fiscal Science.

Irakli Beridze, PhD, is the Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at UNICRI, United Nations​. More than 25 years of experience in leading multilateral negotiations, developing stakeholder engagement programmes with governments, UN agencies, international organisations, private industry and corporations, think tanks, civil society, foundations, academia, and other partners on an international level. Mr Beridze is advising governments and international organizations on numerous issues related to international security, scientific and technological developments, emerging technologies, innovation and disruptive potential of new technologies, particularly on the issue on crime prevention, criminal justice and security. He is supporting governments worldwide on the strategies, action plans, roadmaps and policy papers on AI. Since 2014, Initiated and managed one of the first United Nations Programmes on AI. Finding synergies with traditional threats and risks as well as identifying solutions that AI can contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. He is a member of various international task forces, including the World Economic​ Forum’s Global Artificial Intelligence and Global Future Council, the United Nations AI Inter Agency Task Force, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence of the European Commission. He is frequently lecturing and speaking on the subjects related to technological development, exponential technologies, artificial intelligence and robotics and international security. He has numerous publications in international journals and magazines and frequently quoted in media on the issues related to AI. Irakli Beridze is an International Gender Champion supporting the IGC Panel Parity Pledge. He is recipient of recognition on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the OPCW in 2013.​

The Postal Technology Center (PTC) of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) supports the development of competitive and innovative technology solutions for the Designated Postal Operators of the 192 UPU member countries and their international partners.

The PTC operates a global electronic network linking all the actors of the UPU postal supply chain and provides standard UPU technology solutions for International & Domestic Mail, Customs Management and Postal Payment Services to over 190 member countries.

Mr. Lati Matata is the Director of the UPU’s Postal Technology Centre. He has been part of the UPU community for the last 24 years, delivering technology solutions that support the UPU’s global postal supply chain. He holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering and a Masters in Governance and Leadership.

Dino Dell’Accio is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF), where he spearheads digital innovation initiatives through the responsible adoption of emerging technologies.

A recognized leader in ethical tech governance, Dell’Accio has pioneered the integration of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), and biometric systems to enhance transparency, security, and operational efficiency across the Fund’s global operations.

His work establishes industry benchmarks for aligning cutting-edge tools with rigorous compliance frameworks, particularly through his leadership in achieving the ISO certification for the responsible and ethical use of AI—a first-of-its-kind accomplishment within the UN System and pension sector.  As a sought-after authority, he frequently addresses global audiences at premier scientific forums, where he shares insights on practical and secure applications of blockchain, biometrics, and AI in public-sector innovation.

Dr. Qu Dongyu took office on 1 August 2019 as the ninth Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and was re-elected for a second four-year term on 2 July 2023. 

During his first term, Dr. Qu championed a wide range of reforms and initiatives to overhaul the Organization’s business model, improving efficiency and implementing best practices that support programs and administrative effectiveness. 

Dr. Qu strongly advocated for the transformation of agrifood systems to make them more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable and promote the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life, leaving no one behind with the ultimate goal of helping Members to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

Dr. Qu launched six core initiatives during the first term, which have generated significant achievements on the ground: 

• The flagship Hand-in-Hand Initiative that supports the implementation of country-led and country-owned ambitious programmes to accelerate agrifood systems transformations using advanced geospatial modelling and analytics as well as a robust partnership-building approach to raise incomes, improve the nutritional status and well-being of poor and vulnerable populations, and strengthen resilience to climate change.   
• The 1000-Digital Villages Initiative that promotes E-agriculture, E-commence and E-governance  in rural areas for the benefit of the local community, enabling them to apply, deploy or harness digital innovations and technologies, services and solutions, to improve their economic livelihoods, individual wellbeing, and create social cohesion through better connectivity. 
• The One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) Initiative that places the production, distribution and marketing models of smallholders and family farming at the centre of interventions. It helps countries leverage their potential and identify Special Agricultural Products (SAPs) adapted to their agro-ecological production systems, and national or cultural heritage, ensuring improved access to stable markets and acting as a key entry point for reaching their defined priorities. 
• The Green Cities Initiative that focuses on improving the urban green economy, strengthening urban-rural linkages and improving the resilience of urban food systems, services and populations to external shocks. 
• The One Health approach that works as part of agrifood systems transformation to balance and optimize the health of people, animals, plants and the environment. Ensuring a One Health approach is essential for progress to anticipate, prevent, detect and control diseases that spread between animals and humans, tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), ensure food safety, prevent environment-related human and animal health threats, among others.  
• The Blue Transformation Initiative that is central for increasing nutrients, through fisheries and aquaculture, in an efficient way in relation to input and output, so as to allow Member countries to achieve a diverse diet and increase food availability, and especially to improve access to healthy diets. 

Before first being elected as FAO Director-General, Dr. Qu served as China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), where one of his achievements was to promote inclusive and innovative development and make sure information and communication technologies (ICT) were available in rural areas so that more than 400 million farmers could use their smartphones as a new farming tool. Another national initiative led by Dr. Qu was to improve reporting of wholesale prices for agricultural products in China and foster the establishment of more than 100 specialty production areas geared to making local comparative advantages work to the benefit of local farmers.  

As Vice Governor of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of China’s landlocked and poorest areas, Dr. Qu formulated action plans aimed at poverty reduction, disaster reduction and prevention, women empowerment, agritourism and mutual learning platforms designed to boost trust between ethnic groups. 

Before serving the senior leadership roles in government at central and local level, Dr. Qu was the Vice President of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and the Human Resources Director at the China Three Gorges Project Development Corporation, a $40 billion investment project. 

Born in 1963 to a rice-growing family in China’s Hunan Province, Dr. Qu studied horticultural science at Hunan Agricultural University and then plant breeding and genetics at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He later added environmental science to his knowledge portfolio while earning a PhD at Wageningen University. Being recognized as one of the world’s renowned scientists, Dr. Qu has for over 30 years been directly cooperating with UN Systems, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and private sector in formulating numerous projects and initiatives in eradicating hunger, combating malnutrition, eliminating poverty and sustainably conserving natural resources.   

Dr. Qu says he represents the combination of an “Asian soul” and a “global mind”. His motto is “Simple life, but not simple work”. 

Dr. Qu is married and has one daughter and one grandson. 

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the first woman and first African to hold the position in the 80-year history of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the WTO.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is an economist and international development expert with more than 40 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016–2020), the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Group (2014–2020), and Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate with Lord Nicholas Stern (2014-2020). She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation. She co-chaired the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing for Pandemic Preparedness and was one of the founders of the COVAX Facility, designed to get affordable vaccines to Low and Low Middle-Income Countries. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum and is co-chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. She is also a member of the G30 Group of top 30 people in International Finance and a council member of the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot Prize.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala holds the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, a post she held for seven years in two terms. She also served briefly as the first female Foreign Affairs Minister. As Finance Minister, she implemented policy and institutional reforms to help fight corruption and she spearheaded the complete write off by the Paris Club of $30 billion of Nigeria’s debt. She spent a 25-year career at the World Bank, rising to the number two position of Managing Director, Operations. Previously Dr Okonjo-Iweala, among other duties, served as Senior Advisor at Lazard Ltd. and sat on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank PLC and Twitter Inc. She served in 2020 as African Union COVID-19 Special Envoy as well as World Health Organization COVID 19 Special Envoy.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of numerous honors and accolades. In 2023, she was awarded the Lord Byron International Prize from the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism and the Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In 2022, she obtained the Global Leadership Award by the American Academy of Achievement.  In 2021, she received a Global Leadership Award from the United Nations Foundation as a “Champion for Global Change”. She was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and featured in the Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2011 and 2012. She has also been listed among 73 “brilliant” business influencers in the world by Condé Nast International. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named in 2014 and again in 2021, one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the world. She was also featured on the TIME magazine cover page in 2021. She has been named seven times by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World and in 2020, was named Forbes African of the Year. In 2021, she was named by Financial Times as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in the World and in 2015 she was ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is also the recipient of Nigeria’s second highest National Honor Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON)-2022. She was awarded national honours by the governments of the Republic of Liberia and the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire in 2016. She also received the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco from the Federative Republic of Brazil in 2023. In 2024, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was honored with the Collar of the Order of Timor Leste, the country’s second highest honor.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the recipient of 21 honorary degrees from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Trinity College – Dublin, University of Amsterdam, Luiss University – Italy, American University – USA, Nyenrode Business University, Obafemi Awolowo University and Nile University of Nigeria. She is distinguished visiting fellow at Brookings and a Global Public Leader at Harvard Kennedy School.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the author of several books, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard (Penguin Random House, July 2020), Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (MIT Press, 2018), Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, (MIT Press, 2012), and The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy (Africa World Press, 2003). She also co-authored with Tijan Sallah the book Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light (Africa World Press, 2003). She has also published numerous articles including, Why the World Still Needs Trade (Foreign Affairs, August 2023, Editors’ Top Pick 2023), Finding A Vaccine is Only the First Step (Foreign Affairs, April 2020), Mobilizing Finance for Education in the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Education Report 2019), Shine a Light on the Gaps — an essay on financial inclusion for African Small Holder Farmers (Foreign Affairs, 2015), Funding the SDGs: Licit and Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries (Horizons Magazine, 2016).

Dr Okonjo-Iweala holds a Bachelor’s in Economics (Magna Cum Laude) from Harvard University and a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

A lawyer, medical doctor, and successful software founder, Danny is the 2023 Financial Times Innovative Lawyer of the Year and led Business Insider’s 2022 list of top lawyers helping companies adopt artificial intelligence (AI).  Danny leads DLA’s team helping Fortune 10, 50, 500 and global brands cross-industry adopt new and disruptive technologies like AI, including in risk mitigation, governance, and litigation.  Danny also represents leading life sciences and healthcare companies in matters involving FDA, CMS, HHS, commercial parties, and claimants.  The U.S. Library of Congress gave Danny a Burton Award recognizing “the best of the best writers in the legal profession” among the nation’s top 1,000 largest firms.

A graduate of Harvard College, Yale Law School, and UT Southwestern Medical School, Danny has handled successfully some of his clients’ most challenging and important matters. He played a key legal role in the Covid vaccine effort, helped obtain one of the largest Daubert wins in a pharmaceutical mass action, designed the winning scientific case in the first Hatch-Waxman suit in the Eastern District of Texas, and obtained a unanimous reversal in federal appellate court in a much-cited R&D tax case of first impression. He has successfully handled as lead counsel litigations arising from biotech M&A transactions and has resolved board and shareholder disputes for life-science companies. Danny has represented healthcare clients in matters ranging from internal investigations to business litigation.

Danny is a world-recognized leader in the law and regulation of AI. He sits on the World Economic Forum’s AI Governance Alliance and the Executive Committee of the United Nation’s AI for Good law track. Danny is a founding member of the Health AI Partnership with the Mayo Clinic, Duke, Berkeley, and others, and sat on Pfizer’s Digital Health Scientific Advisory Board.  He moderated the closed-door Ministerial Roundtable in Morocco on Improving Health Outcomes in Africa through Innovative Solutions and has hosted the Principal Deputy Commissioner of FDA, U.S. Senators, and others for fireside chats on key issues of public concern.  Danny is a frequent invited speaker on AI governance and law, including for the Attorney General Alliance, National Retail Foundation, National Association of Corporate Directors, the Business Council, Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School, Harvard Business School’s OPM Annual Conference, the Swiss Embassy, the Korean Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Association for the Advancement of AI, and many others. Danny represents numerous companies on AI governance and adoption, as well as the leading foundation model and other innovators.  His clients also include breakout startups like IDx, the first FDA-approved fully autonomous AI diagnostic, with whom he authored the peer-reviewed Lessons Learned About Autonomous AI: Finding a Safe, Efficacious, and Ethical Path Through the Development Process. Danny’s writing on legal issues in medicine and biotechnology appears in National Law Journal, American Health Law Association Connections, Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Yale Journal of Law & Technology, the American Journal of Ophthalmology, and Health Law Litigation. Danny led a successful software company from inception to acquisition. His original medical research appears in Pediatric Blood & Cancer and the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.

Beyond healthcare, Danny has represented private equity, finance and other clients in some of their most pressing cases in state and federal court. He has argued successfully before the en banc Delaware Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals among others.

Danny is Chair of the Board of Directors of the non-profit AT&T Performing Arts Center, the largest performing arts district in the United States. He chaired the Legal Advisory Counsel of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science and has served on the boards of the Parkland Foundation, SPCA of Texas, Texas Israel Alliance, and the regional Anti-Defamation League. He has co-chaired the Judiciary Committee and the Membership & Admissions Committee of the Dallas Bar Association and served on the Governing Council of its Business Litigation Section. Danny previously served on the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School Association.

John Samuel Gibson is an American trial lawyer and litigator who has served as founding chair of the United Nations’ AI for Good law track and is lead counsel for some of the world’s top technology companies. He is a DLA Piper partner and co-chair of the firm’s U.S. Business and Commercial Litigation practice. John has deep experience analyzing and litigating issues involving new technology platforms and ecosystems as they seek to balance incentives for both development and adoption. He is committed to exploring the use of foundational legal tools to conquer fundamental challenges posed by AI’s emergence—and thus help make “AI ready for the world, and the world ready for AI.”

In 36 years of practice, John has won high-profile trials and save-the-company cases for industry leading companies, professional sports teams, celebrities, and pro bono clients seeking social justice. These range from winning what the media called the “Trial of the Decade” in Los Angeles and winning one of California’s top jury verdicts to winning the nation’s first mandatory federal court injunction requiring a school district to accommodate the service dog of a student with autism. John has also figured prominently in litigation involving emerging technology ecosystems. He defeated a threatened injunction against launch of a leading mobile-device maker’s 4G devices regarding the client’s role in technical standard-setting for 4G-LTE mobile technology. And he won summary judgment for a leading global technology company—defeating an unfair competition law claim in a precedent-setting litigation to determine fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms for a worldwide portfolio of standard-essential mobile-telecommunications patents. He has also represented clients in non-litigation interactions with governments and competition law enforcement agencies around the world.

John has been named one of The Best Lawyers in America, as well as one of the Daily Journal’s Top Antitrust Lawyers of the Year and is rated AV Preeminent 5.0 out of 5.0 by Martindale-Hubbell. He won the Burton Award for being one of the “finest law firm writers of 2019” in a ceremony presided over by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

John has spoken internationally on issues at the intersection of law and technology. He was a speaker at the UN’s first-ever AI Governance Day in Geneva. He also spoke on the topic of “Developing Standards For 3D Printing” at The Legal, Regulatory and Business Conference on 3D Printing in Chicago and “SEPs and FRAND: The US Approach” at the EU Competition Law: Current Issues in a Global Context event in Brussels. And John authored the article “Antitrust Law in the AI Age; Navigating the New Frontier,” published in the Daily Journal.

He has served on numerous charitable boards and is a member, alongside former U.S presidents, Supreme Court justices, and Nobel Prize winners, of the Washington, D.C.-based Cosmos Club for “persons of scholarship, creative genius, or intellectual distinction.”

John earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he was a John Harvard Scholar (top 5% of undergraduate students) and his doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.

His multifaceted legal experience at the intersection of law and technology, his success as a leader and trial lawyer, and his commitment to social justice make John an invaluable asset and distinguished authority sought after by the international community in the evolving landscape of AI and law.

Julius (J.N.) Hill is Deloitte’s Global Consulting Partner to the United Nations and the Managing Partner for the International Affairs and Development (IAD) sector in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He leads a team specialising in operational efficiency, digital transformation and technology optimization. His team is leading flagship projects in the AI space with different UN agencies.

With 30 years at Deloitte, Julius has tackled complex challenges for both public and private sector clients. His deep understanding of the UN system and international organisations brings a unique perspective to addressing critical aspects of people, processes, and technology.

Deloitte continues to support ITU’s AI for Good initiative through the sponsorship of the Global Summit and their contribution to the annual AI for Good Impact Report. 

You can connect with Julius on LinkedIn.

Thomas Schneider is Ambassador and Director of International Affairs at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) in the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). He is a long-standing expert in digital governance and in the governance of the information and knowledge society and artificial intelligence. He is leading the Swiss delegation in various key international fora in these fields.

Since 2003, he has been coordinating the Swiss activities with regard to the implementation and follow-up of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). From 2014-2017, he was the chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and in this role negotiated the compromise among governments regarding the “IANA Stewardship transition”, the biggest reform in the ICANN system. He was responsible for the organization of the 12th UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Geneva in December 2017 on behalf of the Swiss government and co-chair of the IGF’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group in 2017. Since 2020, he is vice-chair of the OECD’s Committee for Digital Economy Policy, and vice-chair of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) – which he chaired from 2018-2019 – and a member of the bureau of the CoE’s Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI). He is the president of the EuroDIG Support Association (since 2012). He has been participating in the meetings of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as personal advisor of former Swiss president, Ms. Doris Leuthard (2018-2019).

Since January 2016, Peggy Hicks has served as director of the Thematic Engagement, Special Procedures and Right to Development Division of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR). She provides strategic direction to the UN Human Rights Office’s work on a broad range of pressing human rights issues, including human rights in the digital age. From 2005 to 2015, she was global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, where she was responsible for managing Human Rights Watch’s advocacy team and providing direction to its advocacy worldwide. Ms. Hicks previously served as the director of the Office of Returns and Communities in the UN mission in Kosovo and as Deputy High Representative for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has also worked as the Director of Programs for the International Human Rights Law Group, and as clinical professor of human rights and refugee law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Ms. Hicks is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the University of Michigan.

Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, where she oversees the institution’s contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity, and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fight against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science, including of neurotechnology and the internet of things. She has overseen the development and adoption of the first global instrument to promote the ethics of artificial intelligence, adopted by acclamation in 2021 by UNESCO’s General Conference. She also launched the Global Forum against Racism, to catalyse the political support that member countries have given to this cause. On gender, she has advanced several initiatives, particularly to combat gender stereotypes and biases, including in new technologies.

Previously, Gabriela Ramos worked as Cabinet Director and Sherpa for G20/G7APEC at the OECD, contributing to increasing the OECD’s global impact and leading key initiatives such as “Inclusive Growth”, “New Approaches to Economic Challenges”, “Climate Change and Growth”, the gender strategy and work on well-being and children. At the G20, she contributed to the international reform of tax systems; the adoption of the gender quota (to reduce the labour gap) and the establishment of the W20; and the adoption of the principles of artificial intelligence, among others. She also oversaw Global Relations and the OECD’s membership enlargement process.

In 2019, she launched the Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG) platform, bringing together 40 multinational companies committed to reducing inequalities. Previously, she was Director of the OECD Office in Mexico and Latin America where she supported reforms in education, telecommunications, gender and health. She was a member of the Mexican Foreign Service.

In 2013, she was awarded the Order of Merit (Ordre du Mérite) by the President of France. Her work to promote gender equality has earned her several awards including from Forbes and Apolitico. She has been a Fulbright and Ford McArthur Fellow. She is an alumna of Harvard University’s Masters in Public Policy and Universidad Iberoamericana’s BA in International Relations. She is a board member of the “Paris Peace Forum”; the “UNICEF Advisory Board”; as well as the “Lancet Commissions on COVID and on Men’s Violence against Women”, and member of the Danone “Entreprise à Mission” Committee.

Tomas Lamanauskas is Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, elected at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference of 2022, and taking up duties as of January 2023.

His 25 years of experience spans across sectors of telecoms and digital policy, regulation and strategy, stemming from executive level positions in agencies, companies, and organizations across Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean and the Pacific region.

As Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Tomas focuses on the financial sustainability and operational excellence of the organization. He also works to raise the digital industry’s ambition in fighting the climate crisis through the Green Digital Action initiative and promotes investments into the digital infrastructure as well as digital resilience through the Digital Infrastructure Investment Initiative and other efforts. Additionally, Tomas contributes to the global efforts to harness the opportunities and mitigate challenges of new technologies, in particular Artificial Intelligence, including through his role as a co-chair of the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on AI. He is also playing a key role in ensuring ITU’s support to other UN-wide development and governance efforts, including through the World Summit of the Information Society process and membership at the Operational Steering Committee of the UN Joint SDG Fund.

Tomas holds Master’s Degrees in Public Administration (Harvard), Leadership and Strategy (London Business School), Telecommunications Regulation and Policy (The University of the West Indies) and Law (Vilnius University).

Abdullah Alrashid is a leading regional figure at the cross-roads of business and social impact with over 15 year of experience. As the director, he led Ithra to become a global cultural destination with millions of beneficiaries annually. His work has gained global recognition frompioneering cultural institutions, international media, and the Ministry of Culture. Through a diverse portfolio of initiatives across art, creativity, knowledge and culture, Alrashid has particularly championed the development of the cultural sector in the Kingdom with a focus on talent enablement and creative production. Alrashid is a founder, advisor and board-member on a number of institutions in education, culture, and sport. He also worked previously at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Washington DC and London.

Alrashid received his undergrad from the University of Edinburgh, and his MBA from Duke University.

Ms. Iris Hauswirth is Chief of Strategic Planning, Performance and Governance at the International Trade Centre (ITC). She has had multiple roles in ITC since 2002, working on organizational matters, project development and coordination.  From 2013-15, she served as Head, Oversight and Compliance Unit at UNDP in Afghanistan. Prior to joining ITC, Iris worked for the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, for consulting firms and as a university lecturer. She holds a PhD in Institutional Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and degrees in Economics and Geography from Phillips University Marburg, Germany.

Ms Johanna Hill (El Salvador) began her role as Deputy Director-General in November 2023. She is a trade expert with more than 25 years’ experience in international trade. Previously, she held the position of Managing Partner of the San Salvador Office of CA Trade Consulting Group, where she advised firms and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on issues relating to international trade and foreign direct investment. Other roles have included Executive Director of El Salvador’s Chamber of Telecommunications and member of the Board of Directors of Banco Azul. Ms Hill has also served as Vice Minister of Economy, where she was responsible for the conduct and implementation of trade policy, negotiations of bilateral free trade agreements and multilateral negotiations. Prior to her appointment as Vice Minister, she occupied different positions within the Ministry of Economy, including Deputy Director and Director for Trade Policy. She holds a master’s degree in International Economic Policy from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York, and a Bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Professor Celeste Saulo was appointed as the first female and South American Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) by the Nineteenth World Meteorological Congress (Cg-19). Her four-year term began on 1 January 2024. Prior to this, she served as the Director of the National Meteorological Service of Argentina since 2014 and was the First Vice-President of the WMO.

Professor Celeste Saulo has been the Director of the Argentinean National Meteorological Service (SMN) and Permanent Representative of Argentina at WMO since July 2014. She was elected to the WMO Executive Council in June 2015. She has been a member of the WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) Scientific Steering Committee since 2011 and has served on various WMO panels related to her field of knowledge. She is full professor at the University of Buenos Aires and research scientist at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research.

As the Director of the Argentinean National Meteorological Service, she has pursued its modernization based of the three axes: enhancement of monitoring, of quality of forecasts and of communications with society. Thus, she has given rise to interinstitutional and interdisciplinary effort and dedication to contribute to the commitments made by the country with regards to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sendai Framework.

Under her direction, the Argentinean National Meteorological Service has been a venue for various capacity development activities for Meteorological and Hydrological Services of developing countries, with a specific focus on training in accordance with the country’s role of Regional Training Centre.

Her intervention in regional and international activities is extensive, mainly oriented towards capacity building at the regional level and to the inclusion and integration of the younger generations of scientists in all relevant areas. A proof of that is the creation of the WMO YESS (Young Earth System Scientists) Office at the Argentinean National Meteorological Service.

Research career and academic background

Ms Saulo launched her academic career as a teaching assistant in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where she earned an undergraduate degree in 1987 and a PhD in 1996. Her peers, students and graduates, elected her as Director of the Department of Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the UBA for two consecutive periods (2009-2013). Her extensive teaching experience is in the areas of numerical weather prediction, atmosphere dynamics and thermodynamics, mesoscale meteorology, cloud dynamics and cloud microphysics.

Her scientific career specialized in numerical weather prediction, ensemble forecasting, data assimilation, short-to-medium range prediction and predictability, land-atmosphere interactions and the study of heavy precipitating systems in southern South America. Her focus over the last few years has been on interdisciplinary problems such as wind energy production, climate services for agricultural applications and early warning systems.

She has authored and co-authored 46 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and book chapters. Furthermore, she has supervised five doctoral theses as well as many students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, acting as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on research projects funded by international and national agencies.