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.

The Hon. Ricardo Viegas d'Abreu currently serves as Minister of Transport of Angola.  A position he has held since June 2018.

In early 2017, he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Banco de Poupança e Crédito, the largest Angolan public bank, and in November of that same year was appointed Secretary to the President of the Republic for Economic Affairs.

He holds a degree in Economics from Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, Portugal. In 1996, he obtained an MBA from the University of Bath in the UK.

Mr Vieillefond, a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique, holds a postgraduate degree in industrial economics. He began his career in 1995 at the Defence Ministry. In 1998 he joined the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economics and Finance as deputy head of the international monetary and financial system department, which draws up French policy on international monetary and financial affairs. In 2001 he was appointed to Brussels as Deputy Secretary General of the European Union's Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) at the European Commission, where he prepared the meetings of the EFC, the ECOFIN and the Eurogroup. Mr Vieillefond moved in 2003 to the State Shareholding Agency at the Treasury and Economic Policy Directorate of the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industry, where he served as Head of the rail, sea and automotive transport unit (2003-2006) and then as Investment Director at the energy division, the position he has held until June 2009. He has been since the Managing Director in charge of the AMF’s Regulation Policy and International Affairs Division.

Luiz Vieira has over 25 years of senior management experience in international development, including 10 years collaborating with global economic, climate and human rights networks, academics and senior UN and government officials to critically analyse the international financial and aid architecture and its implications for international human rights obligations and the implementation of the UN’s Development Agenda.

Luiz coordinates the work of the Bretton Woods Project. Previously he served for eight years as the chief of mission for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Timor Leste, where he worked with UN bodies, donors and IFIs on strategic development planning and received the Order of Timor-Leste, Medal of Merit for services to the people of Timor-Leste.

His past experience includes working with the IOM in Nauru, as well as with NGO Mercy Corps in a variety of emergency response situations, including in El Salvador, Kosovo and Macedonia, as well as on democratic governance in Angola. He served as a guest lecturer on conflict and development at the Columbia University School of International Public Affairs (SIPA). Luiz holds an LLM in International Law and a Masters in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, as well as a degree in political science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira is a Brazilian diplomat who has been serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil since 1 January 2023.

Before assuming this role, he held various positions in federal agencies, including serving as Assistant Secretary General at the Ministry of Science and Technology and as National Administration Secretary in the Ministry of Social Security and Assistance.

He was appointed as Brazil's ambassador to Argentina in Buenos Aires from 2004 to 2010 and then became the Brazilian Ambassador to the United States, a position he held until 31 December 2014.

After that, he served as Foreign Minister for the first time until 2016.

As a career diplomat, he worked at the Brazilian embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1978 to 1982 and at the Brazilian Mission to the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) in Montevideo from 1982 to 1985.  Following a period back in Brasília, he served at the Brazilian embassy in Mexico City from 1990 to 1992 and at the embassy in Paris from 1995 to 1999.

Mr. Vieira holds a bachelor's degree in law from Fluminense Federal University (UFF) and graduated from the Brazilian diplomatic academy, the Rio Branco Institute, in 1974.

Lucie Villa is the lead analyst for several Sub-Saharan African sovereigns and supranational issuers and is a senior member of Moody’s Africa Sovereign Ratings team. Prior to January 2015, Lucie Villa covered a variety of advanced and emerging market European sovereign credits, having joined the Sovereign Risk Group in early 2011 from Moody’s Sub-Sovereign Group.

Prior to joining Moody’s in 2007, Lucie Villa spent two years at the French Ministry of Finance in the Forecast division, responsible for projections and analyses of France’s government finances.

Lucie Villa holds a postgraduate degree in Probability and Statistics from a French Engineering School (ENSAI) and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

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.

Federico Villegas is the Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations Office at Geneva, since 2020. Prior to his arrival in Geneva, Mr. Villegas had been serving as Argentina’s Ambassador to Mozambique until 2016.  He served as the Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina from 2012 to 2016, and from 2005 to 2007.  He was Argentina’s Alternate Representative to the Southern Common Market MERCOSUR and the Association for Latin-American Integration ALADI in Montevideo, Uruguay from 2008 to 2011. 

A career diplomat, Mr. Villegas joined Argentina's Foreign Service in 1993.  He was Deputy Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry in 2003 and 2004, and Argentina’s Alternate Representative to the Organization of American States in Washington DC from 1995 to 2003.  He also served at the Directorate of International Security, Nuclear and Space Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995.

Mr. Villegas has a Master of Arts in liberal studies from Georgetown University, Washington DC (1998).  He graduated as a lawyer from the National University of Rosario in Santa Fe, Argentina (1989).  He also attended an intensive programme for human rights at New College, Oxford University, United Kingdom (1999), and has a human rights diploma from the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France (2001).  He was born in Santiago del Estero, Argentina on 24 March 1966.  He is married with two children.
 

Federico Villegas is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and Permanent Representative of Argentina to the United Nations Office at Geneva since 2020. Prior to his arrival in Geneva, Mr. Villegas had been serving as Argentina's Ambassador to Mozambique until 2016. He served as the Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina from 2012 to 2016, and from 2005 to 2007. He was Argentina's Alternate Representative to the Southern Common Market MERCOSUR and the Association for Latin-American Integration ALADI in Montevideo, Uruguay from 2008 to 2011.

A career diplomat, Mr. Villegas joined Argentina's Foreign Service in 1993. He was Deputy Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry in 2003 and 2004, and Argentina's Alternate Representative to the Organization of American States in Washington DC from 1995 to 2003. He also served at the Directorate of International Security, Nuclear and Space Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1995.

Mr. Villegas has a Master of Arts in liberal studies from Georgetown University, Washington DC (1998). He graduated as a lawyer from the National University of Rosario in Santa Fe, Argentina (1989). He also attended an intensive programme for human rights at New College, Oxford University, United Kingdom (1999), and has a human rights diploma from the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France (2001).

Parminder Vir OBE is a Film Producer and Co-Founder at Support 4 Africa SMEs. She is a commercially focused executive with broad international experience in entrepreneurship, business development and media.

She is a recipient of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth for services to the broadcasting and film industry. She designed, conceptualized and implemented an ambitious Pan-African, holistic entrepreneurship programme, providing training, mentoring, seed capital, access to networks and markets impacting over 10,000 African entrepreneurs with the Tony Elumelu Foundation (2014-2019).

Parminder advocated for entrepreneurship as the best path for social and economic development of the continent; changed the African narrative through entrepreneur stories and helped shape the agenda for the growth of African entrepreneurship.