Martin Peter is the Deputy Head of Trade Promotion at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. Previously, he held various positions in SECO’s development cooperation and bilateral economic relations divisions. Between 2014 and 2019, he was the Director of Swiss Economic Development Cooperation at the Swiss Embassy in Peru. Before joining SECO, Mr. Peter worked on issues related to international trade, labor conditions, vocational training, as well as social conflicts in the private, public as well as in the NGO sectors in Switzerland, Nepal and Peru. He holds a MAS in International Cooperation and Development of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and a MA in International Relations of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ralf Peters, UNCTAD
Ralf Peters is the Head of the Trade Analysis Branch, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UN Trade and Development. He leads UNCTAD’s data, research and capacity building efforts on trade policy and trade related regulations, including tariffs and non-tariff measures.
Mr. Peters has over 15 years of experience in supporting developing countries with quantitative trade analysis for well-informed policy making as well as bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. In the International Labour Office he was Chief Technical Advisor for trade and employment. Before joining the UN, he was assistant professor for negotiation analysis and entrepreneurship, and he worked in the Center for European Research on quantitative policy analysis.
Mr. Peters has a master’s degree in economical mathematics and holds a Ph.D. in economics.
Sara Petersson is Global Partnerships Programme Manager at the Ethical Trading Initiative, where she leads multi-stakeholder programmes advancing human rights in supply chains.
She currently manages ETI’s UK Government-funded Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution project in Bangladesh. With 18+ years’ experience across INGOs, UN agencies, and donor-funded initiatives, Sara has managed large-scale programmes in conflict-affected and fragile contexts including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Yemen, the DRC and South Sudan.
She holds MAs in Political Science and International Studies from UC Berkeley, USA, and an MA in Social Sciences from Lund University, Sweden.
Arnaud Petit was appointed Executive Director of the International Grains Council (IGC) in February 2018. IGC is an intergovernmental organisation based in London offering independent analysis on grains, oilseeds and rice markets to its member governments to promote international trade in grains. It also provides information to non-government subscribers.
IGC provides an important international platform for discussions between policy makers and the private sector. It also serves as the Secretariat for the Food Assistance Committee helping to facilitate networking within the donor community to improve the efficacy of food assistance.
From 2005- 2017 Mr. Petit worked at the European Farmers and agri-cooperatives Union (Copa-Cogeca), as Director for Commodities and Trade. He was also a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Technology Platform “Plants for the future” (2009-2017) and a Member of the Experts Group on EU-US trade negotiations at the European Commission (2014-2017).
From 2000 -2005 he served as Policy Advisor for European Affairs at the National Chamber for Agriculture in Paris, and Deputy Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (2000-2005).
He holds an M.A. in Agricultural Economics from the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, Montpellier – France.
Ms. Jessy Carmelle Petit-Frère is a professor, researcher and speaker at Université Publique du Sud au Cayes. She is also the Founder and Principal (Chief Executive Officer) of Executive Management Consultancy Inc. in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
Previously, she worked for the World Bank in the capacity of Project Management in the education sector. She is a private sector development specialist at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). She implemented a youth entrepreneurship program/small business development project in Comoros. In Haiti, she was Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry and worked to promote and foster the development of domestic commerce, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and industries.
As Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, she developed and implemented policies, programs, and services to facilitate the integration and involvement of Haitians living abroad. She has gained many professional experiences with leading international organizations. She conducted business missions to 43 countries in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia to negotiate projects and set up contractual agreements. She was a panelist at UNCTAD on Trade Capacity Building.
Lebohang Liepollo Pheko is a senior strategist and development practitioner, an activist scholar, academic, public intellectual, for over 25 years. Her research Interests are in Afrikan political economy, States and nationhood, international trade and global financial governance, feminisation of poverty, regional integration and impacts of globalisation on labour migration.
Senior Research Fellow at research and policy advocacy think tank - Trade Collective, founding fellow of the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute and has taught International Trade, Afrikan Feminist Theory, International Development, Political Economy, Political theory and Race and Decolonial studies, the position of African countries in relation to International Institutions like the IMF, World Bank, WTO, UN, ICC.
She has contributed to several books on international trade, international development, politics and feminist studies and is considered a leading exponent on the African Political Economy, International Trade and African development.
She has taught, worked and lived across 41 countries.
Dr. Joan Phillips is a senior lecturer and post graduate coordinator of Sociology in the department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, and completed her PhD at the University of Bedfordshire. She is also a recipient of a Leverhulme Post-doctoral fellowship from the University of London, Royal Holloway her research focus on the nexus between gender, race and Sexuality. Her current research interests are mobilities in the diaspora, postcoloniality and its intersection with gender. She has also undertaken research into return migration She is a skilled qualitative researcher with over thirty years of experience using a emyriad of data collection methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups and other ethnographic methods to conduct hard to reach groups or vulnerable groups.
Willard Phillips is a specialist in applied and environmental economics, and agricultural economics, with more than 30 years' experience in economic and development issues related to Caribbean SIDS.
He has worked for national and international organizations in Central America and the Caribbean.
Since 2004, he has served in the United Nations, firstly as a Programme Specialist, with UNDP, and subsequently with UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, where he now works as an Economic Affairs Officer.
His current work involves research into issues related to sustainable transportation, energy, tourism, maritime issues, and disaster risk reduction.
Eunice is a female aged 53 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economist from the University of Zambia; a Post graduate Diploma in Economics for Competition Law from King’s College London, in London; and a Post graduate Diploma in Management Practice specialising in Trade Law and Policy from the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town in South Africa. She is a Certified Digital Finance Practitioner, certified by the Digital Frontiers Institute of Cape Town in South African and the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Eunice has 8 years work experience in retail banking having worked for Standard Chartered Bank Zambia Plc; and over 22 years experience in competition law and policy. Eunice is currently working as Acting Executive Director at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Zambia. She worked as an Economist in the department of Mergers and Acquisition for three years, and later in the Department of Consumer Protection for 19 years.