Speakers

Helio Vicente is the Director of Employment Affairs at the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the global trade association for shipowners and operators, representing over 80% of the world merchant fleet.

He serves as Secretary of the ICS Labour Affairs Committee, responsible for global shipping employment policy and other related matters; as well as the ICS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Panel.

Helio is also Secretary to the global Shipowners' Group at the International Labour Organization (ILO).

He previously served as Secretary of the ICS Shipping Policy Committee (SPC) and the ICS Shipping Canals Sub-Committee.

Before joining ICS, Helio worked at the Diplomatic Mission of Angola to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), at the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa (MOWCA), and at the IMO Sub-Division for Maritime Security and Facilitation.

Fabián Villarroel is Director of Customs and Regulatory Affairs at DHL Express for Central and South America and member of Regional Private Consulting Group of WCO.

He worked for almost 20 years at Chilean Customs, holding various responsibilities. He participated in the negotiations of different trade agreements of Chile. He is also an expert on trade facilitation and leadership issues of WCO, and is a frequent World Trade Organization panelist/arbitrator. He is President of the Chilean Institute of International Trade.

Furthermore, he is Professor at various universities in Chile and author of publications on customs and international trade.

David Vivas Eugui is Chief (a.i) of the Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development Branch at UNCTAD.

Previously, he was a Senior Economic Affairs Officer in UNCTAD’s Trade Negotiations and Commercial Diplomacy Branch, Deputy Programmes Director at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL),  Attaché for Legal Affairs at the Mission of Venezuela to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Staff Attorney at the Venezuelan Institute of Foreign Trade. David is an international expert with more than 20 years of experience on legal and economic issues.

He has worked as an advisor and consultant for various institutions, international and national organizations and has lectured on intellectual property, trade, oceans economy and environmental law at the University of Strasbourg (CEIPI), Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), Maastricht University (the Netherlands), WIPO Distant Learning Academy, and University of Business and International Studies (Switzerland).

He holds a JD from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, an LLM from Georgetown University and a Master in Transnational Business from the Universidad Externado de Colombia.

Maximilian is a Consultant in the World Bank's Transport Global Practice and for UNCTAD. He focuses on decarbonizing the maritime transport sector.

Since joining the World Bank, he has worked on projects relating to energy efficiency, but also in the unit's in-country work on decarbonization strategies for shipping.

Prior to his engagement with the Bank, he gained operational shipping experience working as a seagoing Engineer Officer, serving on globally trading container vessels and passenger ships and worked in the shipbuilding industry.

Maximilian holds a BSc in Marine Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences, Wismar, Germany and a MSc in Maritime Management from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a qualified marine engineer in accordance with the STCW convention. 

Victoria Weyulu is the Senior Manager for the Department: Trade Facilitation and Customs Procedures in the Department of Customs and Excise of the Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA). 

Before her appointment, Ms. Weyulu served as the Chief Legal Officer in the Office of the Minister of Justice and previously as a Young Professional for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where she worked in the Trade and Environment Division that is responsible for administering the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade TBT). 

In terms of qualifications, Ms. Weyulu is an admitted Legal Practitioner of the High Court of Namibia and holds B.Juris and LL.B degree from the University of Namibia, a Master of Laws degree in international trade, business and investment law (cum laude) from the University of the Western Cape and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance.

Olivia White is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and a Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. She advises leading financial institutions and other global firms on a wide range of issues across strategy, growth, and risk and resilience.  She also supports major philanthropies and others in their work on economic development and inclusion globally.   

At MGI, Olivia leads research on global economic and business trends, including on geopolitics and global trade; productivity, including the role of SMEs in large corporate ecosystems, and generative AI and the future of work.  Her work is regularly profiled in leading news outlets, and she speaks regularly at global conferences and industry events.

Previously, Olivia was a Pappalardo fellow in physics at MIT. She holds her PhD in physics from Harvard University; an MSc in mathematics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar; and Bachelors' degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford University.

Kerrlene Wills is the Director for Ocean and Climate, where she brings her expertise in multilateralism and diplomacy to the Climate and Environment Team at the United Nations Foundation.

Prior to joining the UN Foundation, Kerrlene served as the Chargée d’ Affaires at the Permanent Mission of Guyana at Geneva, where she led negotiations on fisheries subsides at the World Trade Organization for Guyana and for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Group.

During her tenure in Geneva, Kerrlene also served as regional coordinator for the Group of Americas (GRUA) countries at the World Health Organization, where she facilitated the regional response to global health challenges, including the COVID-19 Pandemic, in advanced of the 75th World Health Assembly.

Kerrlene is a Posse Foundation Scholar, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management with Honors from Babson College and a Master’s Degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Gordon Wilmsmeier is the Director of the Hapag-Lloyd Centre for Shipping and Global Logistics (CSGL) at the Kühne Logistics University (KLU), Germany and holds the Kühne Professorial Chair in Logistics at the School of Management, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.

Gordon is honorary professor for Maritime Geography at the University of Applied Sciences  Bremen, Germany.

Since 2001 he collaborated in research and consultancy with international organizations, Development Banks, NGOs, national governments and the private sector in Europe and Latin America on port development, maritime economics, energy efficiency and transport sector decarbonization. He has published over 100 book chapters, journal papers, institutional publications. In 2022 his work on climate change adaptation was cited in the IPCC report.

He is BoD member of the Fundación Conecta Logísta in Chile, leader of the global port performance research network (PPRN), Council member (International Association of Maritime Economists - IAME), and associate member of PortEconomics.

Matthew Wilson is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations,  World Trade Organisation and Other International Organisations in Geneva. He is Chair of the WTO Working Group on MSMEs and convener of the WTO Dialogue on Plastics Pollution. 

He has held various senior roles in international organisations including Chief of Staff at the International Trade Centre; Senior Adviser to the WTO Director General, Deputy Aid for Trade Coordinator at the WTO and the first ‘Friend of the Chair’ on the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiations. 

He is an International Gender Champion and is on the steering committee of the International Gender Champions; the WEF Climate Trade Zero; the Forum on Trade, Environment and the SDGs; and the shridath ramphal centre for international trade law, policy and services at the University of the West Indies. 

Frida Youssef is the chief of the Transport Section within the Trade Logistics Branch at UNCTAD.

She has more than twenty-five years of professional experience in areas related to trade, logistics, commodities, finance, and sustainable development, which has given her the opportunity to build, lead and motivate research and technical assistance programmes, geared towards developing countries in a broad range of issues, including commodity supply chains and structured finance, public-private partnerships (PPPs), maritime transport and ports, transit transport and corridors, and cross-cutting issues such as environment, climate change, gender, finance and investment. She is a co-author of the UNCTAD's annual Review of Maritime Transport. Frida holds an MBA from Boston University and an MA in International Affairs from the Hautes Etudes Internationales - Paris.;

She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Network of Export-Import Banks and Development Finance Institutions (G-NEXID). She is also on the Steering Committee of the Port Chapter of the World Association of PPPs Units and Professionals (WAPPP).