Sung-yo Choi, Ambassador, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea Mission to the World Trade Organization, is Co-coordinator of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement. She currently also serves as Chair of the WTO Working Party on the Accession of Uzbekistan. She is a career diplomat with extensive expertise in international trade negotiations and multilateral affairs and has been involved in WTO negotiations for over 15 years, as well as the Republic of Korea’s free trade area negotiations. Prior to returning to Geneva, she was Minister at the Delegation of the Republic Korea to the OECD in Paris. She holds an M.B.A. from Yale University and a B.A. in Communications from Seoul National University.

Fayezul Choudhury became Chief Executive Officer of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in February 2013. Mr. Choudhury was previously with the World Bank, where his last two assignments were as Vice President, Corporate Finance and Risk Management; and Controller and Vice President, Strategic Planning and Resource Management. In this latter role he was the World Bank's spokesperson on global accounting and auditing issues. Mr. Choudhury started his career in 1974 with PriceWaterhouse in London, initially in public accounting and later management consulting. During his career with PriceWaterhouse, he spent three years in Nigeria, developing the consulting practice in the region. Mr. Choudhury has served on a number of high-level representative bodies. He was a member of the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) from its formation in 2005 until 2010. Mr. Choudhury also chaired the Global Steering Committee of the International Forum for Accountability Development and was a member of the Standards Advisory Council of the International Accounting Standards Board. He served as a member of the Iraq Advisory and Monitoring Board established by the Security Council of the United Nations. Mr. Choudhury has an MA (Hons) in Engineering Science and Economics from the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Denis Choumert is chairing the global alliance of many shippers councils based in Asia, Europe and America, GSA, which is involved in various initiatives related to trade, maritime transport and decarbonization of freight.

He is Vice President of the European Shippers’ Council, the association representing European retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers, after having been its President for 10 years. He is President of the French Shippers' Council, AUTF, and in this capacity has been a Board member of various French infrastructure management organizations (rail, waterways, port) and of the merchant fleet high committee. He has also been a Director of the Board of TIACA, the global air cargo industry association.

Denis Choumert holds an engineering degree from Polytechnique School in Paris and a MBA from INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau.

Now retired he has held various senior management positions in engineering, project management, procurement, transport and logistics.

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury is Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General, he joined the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), New York in October 2008.

He was Director of Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division (July 2012-Aug. 2014) and Director of Statistics Division (Sept. 2014-May 2015) of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP). Anis retired as Chief in the Financing for Development Office (UN-DESA, New York) on 31 January 2016. . He led the preparations of ESCAP's flagship publications, Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific (2013 and 2014), Statistical Yearbook of Asia and the Pacific (2014) along with many other publications focused on social developmentchallenges across the globe. 

Anis held the post of Professor of Economics, at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) from 2001 to 2012, and taught at the University of Manitoba, National University of Singapore, and the University of New England (Australia). He has also been a consultant to the UNDP, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the Islamic Development Bank; and a visiting fellow at UNU-WIDER, the Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Singapore). Anis was Founding Managing Editor of the Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy (1995-2008), and has close to 100 scholarly publications, including 17 co-authored books and over 50 articles in leading journals on East and Southeast Asia and macro-development issues. Some of his books have been translated to Japanese, Chinese and Farsi (Iran). He is a regular contributor to voxeu.org (Development and Crisis debate); IDEAs Policy Briefs; G24 Policy Briefs and on-line discussion, "recovery-with-human-face".

Johannah Christensen is Chief Executive Officer of the Global Maritime Forum.

The Global Maritime Forum is an international not-for-profit organization committed to shaping the future of global seaborne trade to increase sustainable long-term economic development and human wellbeing. It brings together a broad spectrum of leaders from across the industry to find new solutions to the most important challenges facing the industry today and in the future. The Global Maritime Forum is a Founding Partner of the Getting to Zero Coalition.

Prior to establishing the Global Maritime Forum, Johannah has helped businesses to address global challenges in a variety of different roles at INDEX: Design to Improve Life, at leading Scandinavian think tank Monday Morning, at the World Economic Forum and as an independent advisor.

Christina Christopoulou is a Business and Technology Partner in the Gas Segment at Lloyd’s Register and has a well-rounded career that reflects her dedication in the maritime field.  She graduated from the department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens in 2018.  Her professional career began with an internship at NAP Engineering P.C. in 2015, where she continued as a Naval Architect for five years. She contributed to various projects, including the EU-funded Poseidon Med II, where she played a key role in designing an innovative LNG-fueled Ro/Pax ship and many LNG retrofit projects for existing vessels of various ship types. Christina also participated in the design and supervision of new vessels constructions and modification of existing vessels.  In January 2021, she joined Lloyd's Register as a Business and Technical Support Specialist in the EU funded projects team, and by March 2022, she had transitioned to the role of Business and Technology Partner within the Gas segment. Christina provides commercial and technical support to the Gas Segment manager and internal key stakeholders to develop and grow segment business. She is strongly involved in the “Methane Abatement in Maritime Innovation Initiative", being the leader of workstream 1.

Jean-Chrysostome Ngabitsinze is the Minister of Trade and Industry of Rwanda since 30 July 2022. Before this, he was the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources since 9 March 2020, a position he was appointed to after being a Member of Parliament chairing the Public Accounts Committee in 2018.

Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Rwanda for over 10 years, where he taught agricultural economics and agribusiness among other courses, and from December 2018, he was promoted to Associate Professor.

Besides teaching and political work, he has served on various boards of Government Agencies. In 2016, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB) for two years and in the same year 2016, was elected chairperson of the Huye District Council. Prior to that, he chaired the National Land Commission under the Ministry of Natural Resources for three years.

Mr. Ngabitsinze has a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the Doctoral School of Technological Innovation in Agri-food and Environmental Sciences from Milan State University, a Master's degree in Economics from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, and a Bachelor's degree in Business Economics from Ca' Foscari University of Venice in Italy.

Manjula is an Independent Consultant currently working as Head of Finance- Sustainability at Tesco. She is the finance lead in establishing a reporting framework for Tesco’s sustainability strategy and is also leading the implementation of the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures) guidelines. She joined Tesco in September 2016 as Head of Finance- Group External Reporting and has held finance roles across various industries. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Manjula has a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the London Business School. She is also a member of the Standards Advisory Group at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and has worked very closely with the Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) on various projects.

Mereoni Chung is an associate with Development Alternatives with Women for a New era (DAWN), with a keen focus on Political Ecology and Sustainability.

Mereoni is a Fijian feminist activist that works with civil society organisations in Fiji, with Pacific collectives, and across the global south with feminist networks to mobilise action for gender equality and social justice. Presently, she is working with Pacific civil society collectives to progress critiques and alternative perspectives on global and regional development concerns and issues, such as the Blue Economy.

She holds a Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management and Development from the Australia National University (ANU), and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

Bailey has served as the Partner leading KPMG’s Public Sector Accounting Advisory service line for Canada since 2015 and has more than 25 years of experience advising the public sector on complex accounting and reporting matters. Bailey leads KPMG’s Public Sector ESG Centre of Expertise, and the Global International Public Sector Accounting Standards Working Group. Bailey is driving KPMG’s response to IPSASB’s climate disclosures and tangible natural resources standards, and collaborations with governments around the world to prepare for voluntary implementation. 

Bailey has worked with more than 300 governments on sustainability reporting for climate and biodiversity. Through his work Bailey has developed adaptations of the International Sustainability Standards Board guidance specific to the public sector.

Bailey is a board member of the Natural Assets Initiative. Bailey led the collaborations between KPMG, the Natural Assets Initiative, and the Intact Centre on Climate Change, and more than 50 industry partners to develop a voluntary disclosure framework designed to align with the Taskforce on Nature Related Financial Disclosures.

Educational Background 

• NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Executive Certificate in Advancing Sustainability (March 2022)
• Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), The Institute of Internal Auditors, 2004
• CPA Ontario/ Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (appointed Fellow by CPA Ontario in 2024)
• BComm, Queens University – 1996
   

Connect with Bailey Church at KPMG in Canada.