Brian A. Wong is Alibaba Global Initiatives Advisor and Managing Director, Seacliff Partners, Ltd, an angel investment firm dedicated to empowering start-ups in their pursuit to solve social problems using innovative technology solutions. He is also founder and Chairman of RADII, a digital media company focused on sharing unique stories from the heart of China’s youth culture.

Brian, spent a 16 year career at the Alibaba Group where he was the first American and 52nd employee. Wong contributed to the company’s early globalization efforts in various business roles such as vice president of sales, special assistant to the Chairman for international affairs, and executive director of the Alibaba Global Leadership Academy. He also led the Alibaba Global Initiatives (AGI) team, developing and leading capacity building programs for entrepreneurs, universities and government leaders in emerging markets from Africa to Asia. Today he is an adviser to AGI.

Wong earned his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, holds a Master’s certificate from the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for US and China Studies and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

He is China Fellow with the Aspen Institute, was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a member of the Committee of 100.

Alex has over 30 years professional experience in a series of leadership roles that has consistently focused on building partnerships to address the world's biggest development challenges. Since February 2019, Alex has been serving as Senior Strategy Advisor to the Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs). In this role he is also co-leading Giga, a joint project between ITU and UNICEF to connect every school to the internet, and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice.

Prior to joining the ITU, Alex has worked in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. From 2018-2019, he served as President of CG/LA Infrastructure, where he oversaw all operations and the development and implementation of a new strategy to advance development in the world’s infrastructure markets. From 2000 to 2018, Alex was a member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum, an international organization for public private cooperation with a mission to improve the state of the world. At the WEF, he held several leadership roles including overseeing the development and rollout of the Forum’s Global System Initiatives; heading the Future of the Digital Economy & Society initiative; heading the IT & Telecoms, Media & Entertainment industry teams; heading the Basics & Infrastructure industry teams; and heading the Center for Global Industries Geneva. From 1988-2000, Alex worked for 12 years in a variety of professional roles at Accenture as a Strategy Consultant, General Motors as a Quality Control Engineer, and the US National Parks Service.

He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University

Richard Woods is the EU Public Policy Lead of the World Benchmarking Alliance. WBA is a global non-profit bringing together investors, NGO’s, business platforms, governments and existing disclosure standards to develop free and publicly available benchmarks that rank companies on their contribution to the SDGs. In a career spanning positions within UK government, global nonprofits and the private sector, Richard has managed a number of high profile European projects and policy initiatives, building close relationships with EU institutions, NGOs, academic and industry partners.

Mr. Trevor Woods works as Director of Application Delivery Services at a regional financial institution. He is responsible for developing and executing the company’s data strategy and overseeing the delivery of strategic solutions across a diverse project portfolio.

Trevor is a technology professional with 20 years’ experience. He is also a former cultural industries entrepreneur.

He is the founding Chairman of the ‘Brewster’s Road Crew’, a prominent Barbadian events promotion team. He spent 10 years producing events during Barbados’s Crop Over Festival, including two 24-hr shows. His team focused on showcasing aspects of local culture through their events, and were keen adopters of technology, being among the first to establish a social media presence when the platforms first launched. He is an aspiring writer and is passionate about promoting local culture, creativity, and creatives.

Leigh-Ann Worrell is the Temporary Project Coordinator at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit. In 2016, she completed a masters in Women and Gender Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. While there, she also worked as a Sexual Assault Outreach Coordinator at Carleton University Graduate Students Association.

She earned her first masters in Social Policy from Beijing Normal University in China, and her Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.

Leigh-Ann has also worked as a journalist at the Nation newspaper and Barbados online newspaper, Barbados Today.

Logan Wort is the Executive Secretary of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), an African inter-governmental organisation leading tax administration reform and facilitates the cooperation among tax administrations in mobilising greater domestic resources and to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. His responsibilities as Chief Executive include providing strategic leadership and managing the business of the organisation. As Executive Secretary, he is the legal representative and chief accounting officer of ATAF. 

Under his stewardship, ATAF has inter alia produced the first study on Good Tax Governance in Africa, conducted a comprehensive Study on Reform Priorities of African Tax Administrations, launched the African Executive Masters Degree in Taxation (EMT) Programme, and delivered technical training to more than thousand African tax officials through the ATAF Capacity Development Programme. 

Not only is Mr Wort an ex officio member of the ATAF Council, he is inter alia also a member of the Consortium and High Level Panel to Stem Illicit Financial Flows from Africa as well as serving on the OECD Task Force for Tax and Development. Other key deliverables include setting up a Technical Assistance Facility and the publication of the first African Tax Outlook (ATO).

Prior to taking up the position of ATAF Executive Secretary, he served as Group Executive at the South African Revenue Service, Deputy Director General at the South African National Treasury, Spokesman for the South African Finance Ministry and the Director of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Finance and Investment Sector Co-ordinating Unit (FISCU).

Logan Wort was born in Cape Town, South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Sociology, and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of the Western Cape.

Eleanor Wragg is a senior reporter at GTR, where she covers the trade, export, commodity and supply chain finance markets, as well as the political risk and trade credit insurance, treasury and fintech sectors. With over a decade’s experience in journalism, her work has been published in media outlets including the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, Die Welt and the Economic Observer of China.

She also regularly produces analytical and research work on gender and trade for organisations including UNDP, UNWTO, the British Business Bank, the Mastercard Foundation for Inclusive Growth, and the Bill and Melinda Gates-backed initiative, Women and Girls Deeply.

After graduating from Worcester College, Oxford in 1974 in politics, economics and philosophy (PPE) David has worked for nearly 34 years in the European Commission from 1977- 2011. He held a variety of posts including at the beginning of his career responsibility for oil and gas data in the Statistical Office, Luxembourg (1977-1981) during the second oil crisis; energy policy coordination and modelling in the Directorate General for Energy, Brussels (1982-1987); and then industrial trade policy negotiations during the Uruguay multilateral trade round (1987-1989). From 1989-1992 he was a member of President Delors' "Think Tank" called the "Cellule de Prospectives" where he worked on industrial policy and wrote the first Commission document on sustainable development. In this period he co-authored a book with Professor Alexis Jacquemin on the post-1992 EU political and economic agenda called "Shaping factors, shaping actors". From 1993-1994 he was a member of Sir Leon Brittans' Cabinet and worked on various aspects of trade and industrial policy, including completion of the Uruguay Round in 1994. In 1995 he became an Adviser to President Jacques Santer in his Cabinet – covering competitiveness, industrial and telecom policies, political relations with the UK and Ireland, financial services, risk capital and various other trade and foreign policy briefs. From March 2000 – October 2010 he was first Director, then Deputy Director-General for securities and financial markets, then for all financial services policy in DG Internal Market and Services. He helped design and drive forward the Financial Services Action Plans to integrate the EU's capital and financial services markets. He was the rapporteur for both the Lamfalussy (2000/1) and De LaRosière Committees (2008/9), chaired the Securities and Banking Committees and represented the Commission in the Financial Services Committee and in various FSB/G20 fora. He also played a leading role in the EU-US financial markets dialogue in this period. He was the EU Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford until July 2011 and was a Member of the European Commission's Task force on Greece until the end of January 2012. David Wright’s appointment as Secretary General of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) commenced on 15 March 2012.

Shuyu Wu is an Assistant Professor at the School of Economics and Resource Management, Beijing Normal University in China. She also works as a research fellow at the Academic Centre for Chinese Economic Thinking at Tsinghua University.

Her research focusses on monetary economics and China's macroeconomy. Before joining the university as a research and teaching staff, she worked as a consultant with the Macro and Fiscal Team at the World Bank's Beijing office and was in charge of China's macroeconomic analysis.

An astute economist and entrepreneur, Michael advises on the finances and strategic direction of Norge Mining. He’s worked for Citibank Zurich, and has held a prestigious array of senior positions at multinational financial institutions in New York and Frankfurt.

He’s previously been mandated by various governments, finance ministries and state banks to help settle sovereign debts. Over the years, Michael has advised on structure financing for companies in the natural resources, commodities and mining sectors in Russia, the Middle East and Mongolia.