Joakim Reiter (Sweden) took up the position of Deputy Secretary-General on 1 April 2015. Mr. Reiter, who has held high-level diplomatic positions as a representative of his country, has extensive experience in trade negotiations and wide-ranging expertise in trade and development and in dealing with multilateral organizations. Immediately prior to joining UNCTAD, Mr. Reiter was the Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, heading the Department for International Trade Policy. In that role, he oversaw the formulation of Sweden’s policies and priorities with respect to, inter alia, trade and investment issues, traderelated technical assistance and corporate social responsibility, as well as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UNCTAD and the European Union’s bilateral and regional trade negotiations. He also represented Sweden on the OECD Trade Committee. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Reiter held the position of Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sweden to the WTO in Switzerland, where he also served as chair of the WTO bodies on services (2012), goods (2014) and trade policy reviews (2013), as well as the Working Party on the accession of Liberia. Mr. Reiter was Minister Counsellor and Head of the Trade Section at the Representation of Sweden to the European Union in Belgium from 2008 to 2011. In this capacity he represented Sweden in the Trade Policy Committee of the Council of the European Union, which he chaired during the Swedish Presidency in 2009. From 2004 to 2008, he served at the European Union Directorate General for Trade in the European Commission, where he was involved in a number of multilateral, regional and bilateral negotiations with countries at different levels of development. In 2006, he served as Vice-Chair of the OECD Working Party of the Trade Committee. During the Swedish Presidency of the European Union in 2001, Mr. Reiter represented Sweden at UNCTAD and in the European Union’s negotiations with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and Chile. Before that, Mr. Reiter held various positions within the Swedish National Board of Trade, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry. During this time he was Special Adviser to the Minister for Industry and Trade and responsible for drafting the Government of Sweden’s strategies and communications on equitable globalization and global financial stability. Mr. Reiter also took part in the formulation of the Government’s policy coherence for development. Mr. Reiter was born in Sweden in 1974 and is a graduate of the London School of Economics (Master of Science, Economics), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Lund University (Master of Arts, Political Science), Sweden. He has authored academic articles, as well as a book on different trade, investment and financial issues. He is married and has two children

Jan Yves Remy is the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services (the SRC), the premier trade institution of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, dedicated to training, research and outreach on issues of regional and international trade.

Her areas of research include international and regional trade dispute settlement regimes, climate change and trade, trade and sustainability, WTO reform, trade and gender issues, e-commerce, regional integration and investment policy, in particular, how they affect small island developing states including those in the Caribbean.

She holds the position of WTO Chair at the University of the West Indies (Barbados), under the WTO's Chair Programme; has served as a panelist in WTO trade disputes; and has been included on the panel roster to serve as arbitrator and/or Chair on a number of mechanisms under European and UK FTAs.

Jan Yves Remy is the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services (the SRC), the premier trade institution of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, dedicated to training, research and outreach on issues of regional and international trade.

She coordinates and lectures under the SRC’s flagship Masters in International Trade Policy (MITP) programme, in the areas of international trade law and regional integration; spearheaded and introduced the SRC Trading Thoughts, SRC Policy Briefs and SRC Lunch Time Chats as part of the SRC’s signature outreach events; introduced the Distinguished Owen Seymour Arthur Memorial Lecture; and has developed a number of short courses for the SRC on trade-related topics; and writes frequently on issues arising under Caribbean development and trade law. Her areas of research include international and regional trade dispute settlement regimes, climate change and trade, trade and sustainability, WTO reform, trade and gender issues, e-commerce, regional integration and investment policy, in particular, how they affect small island developing states including those in the Caribbean.

She holds the position of WTO Chair at the University of the West Indies (Barbados), under the WTO’s Chair Programme; has served as a panelist in WTO trade disputes; and has been included on the panel roster to serve as arbitrator and/or Chair on a number of mechanisms under European and UK FTAs. She sits on a number of Boards – including the John Jackson Moot Court Advisory Board, the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Economic Law and the Special Advisory Board of the African Journal of International Economic Law.  She is a Co-Founder of the Caribbean Women in Trade network. She is also a Co-Lead of the Remaking Global Trade for a Sustainable Future Project – a project aimed at reforming the international trade system to take into account sustainability concerns – which she leads together with Professors from Yale University and Tufts University. She is also the Founder of the Joint University Study Tour (JUST), which is an annual tour to Geneva bringing together postgraduate university students from around the world to network and visit Geneva-based missions and other international organizations. Jan Yves currently serves as Co-President of TradeLab, a network of Universities across the world, modelled on students providing international trade and investment advice to beneficiaries, especially in developing countries.

Jan Yves holds an undergraduate degree in law from the University of the West Indies (Hons); a masters from the University of Cambridge (Hons); and a PhD (summa cum laude) from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies on the Role of the Caribbean Court of Justice in Caribbean integration. She previously worked as Senior Associate at Sidley Austin LLP (Geneva and Washington D.C.) and before that as Legal Officer at the Appellate Body of the WTO (Geneva).

Jorge Marco Renau is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics at University of Girona, Spain. He holds a PhD in Economics from University of Girona, Spain (2018).

Jorge Marco studied Environmental Sciences at University of Valencia (UVEG, Spain) and Mathematical Modeling at University Autonomous of Barcelona (UAB, Spain).  He is member of the research group GRAE at the University of Girona. His research interests are Environmental and Resource Economics, Social Economics, Public Policy, and Evolutionary Economics.

Geert Rensen is one of the Founders of Be Informed. in 2006 he founded the Be Informed company on the belief that the next frontier for productivity improvement lies in automation of knowledge work and that this is key to improving the standard of living of our communities.

Working with public sector agencies since 1993 he has set himself the challenge to help disentangle the maze of rules and regulations that governs the relationship between governments, businesses and citizens. Following in a joint research project with the University of Amsterdam aimed at making regulations of the Government of the Netherlandse more transparent he designed the Be Informed platform around semantic web and legal knowledge representation standards.

Geert Rensen is the spokesperson for Be Informed and a business development lead with a practical view. He has implemented Be Informed solutions in over 15 countries worldwide and works with the all large Be Informed accounts in public sector, financial services and trade and transport. Geert is passionate about helping organizations reimagine their business processes by applying smart technologies in combination with legal knowledge representations.

Geert currently holds the role of Director of Business Development for Be Informed and has been active as the Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director of the US operations and Director Marketing & Sales. Previously, he worked for Logica as an Account Manager, Business Unit Manager, and Sales Director Public Sector.

Asmâa is a Partner in Deloitte Morocco in Assurance Services, where she is in charge of auditing in various industry and services’ sectors (real estate, mining, pharmaceutical, consumer business, automobile, tourism). She has an extensive experience of more than twenty years in auditing, due diligence and valuation engagements, agreed upon procedures and internal control review engagements. During her career, she has also been a Finance Director for four years in a multinational company. From 2008 to 2011, Asmâa was performing quality reviews of auditing firms within the Moroccan Institute of Chartered Accountants. She has been elected as member of the Regional Council of Chartered Accountants in Morocco from 2011 to 2014. Among her responsibilities, she was chairing the Audit quality review committee within the Moroccan Institute. Asmâa has served as a member of PAFA Board (Pan African Federation of Accountants) since May 2011, as Vice President of PAFA in May 2013 and as President since May 2015.

HE Mr. Chhem Kieth Rethy is Minister Delegate Attached to the Prime Minister and Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation of Cambodia.

He oversees the National Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation (NISTI) and the National Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations (NIDIR) and serves as member of the Board of Trustees of the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology.

He is a distinguished visiting professor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Fukushima Medical University.

Previously, he was a Professor of Radiology in Canada, Singapore, Austria and Japan for 30 years. Prof. Rethy is a medical doctor, science diplomat, educator and historian with extended experience in Digital Science and Technology, Global Health Diplomacy, Nuclear Technology Policy, and Executive Education.

He was the Director of the Division of Human Health at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 2008 to 2014. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, edited 17 textbooks and has been invited as a keynote speaker in more than 70 countries.

Kamel Rezig has held the position of Minister of Foreign Trade and Export Promotion of Algeria, since April 2025. 

Prior to his current position, he held the same ministerial position from January 2020 to March 2023, during which he implemented a series of key reforms in the trade sector — notably in combating speculation and organizing market structures. After completing his term in 2023, he was appointed as an advisor to the President on foreign trade and export matters. 

An economist and Doctor of Economic Sciences (University of Algiers 3), Professor Kamel Rezig also served as Chief Tax Inspector and a lecturer at the University of Blida since 1997. From 1999 to 2004, he held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the same university.

Fredrick Riaga holds an MBA in Finance, a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in Accounting and a registered professional accountant. He is in the employ of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants as Chief Manager - Public Policy and Research. He leads the Institute’s advocacy and policy research in the areas of governance and accountability. As the liaison officer with Government of Kenya, Fredrick manages relationships with the National Treasury, Parliament of Kenya, the Constitutional Commissions with a mandate on public sector accountability. Specifically, on national budget, he leads the Institute’s engagement on national budget making, implementation and monitoring with a view to ensuring value for money principle is realized in public expenditure management. To drive financial oversight, Fredrick facilitates the Institute’s interventions with the Parliamentary Oversight Committees. He has facilitated capacity building sessions of the two committees on effective oversight. He also leads engagement with departmental committees of Parliament on Budget as well as the Finance, Trade and Planning. Fredrick is the lead researcher at the Institute and generated three research papers under the themes: Baseline Survey on the Success of Devolution in Kenya – Focus on a Year of Implementation – ICPAK 2014; Study on Effectiveness of Audit Committees in the Public Sector in Kenya – ICPAK 2015; and Analysis of Kenya’s Revenue Performance from 2010 – 2015 ICPAK 2016. In addition, he has developed several position papers to address topical public policy issues, the most significant ones being; framework on public financial management which yield the chapter twelve of the Constitution of Kenya, the Framework on Campaign Financing in Kenya, budget submissions, Framework on Revenue Share that informs the sharing of nationally generated revenues between national and county level governments in Kenya. Beyond this, he has developed and submitted position papers on various laws and legislations for consideration by Parliament. Recently, Fredrick led a team from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya to join UNCTAD in hosting the African Regional Workshop on Financial Inclusion. The workshop was themed around Best Policy Practices and Guidelines on Accounting and Insurance Regulation for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The meeting was attended by delegates from across Africa.