Lisa Emelia Svensson is a Swedish diplomat and with over 25 years of international experience in diplomacy, expert in environmental and digital policies, particularly in ocean governance and sustainability.
She has been posted in New York, Washington D.C., Brussels, Nairobi and Genève. She worked for the European Commission, United Nations and the Swedish Ministry for the Environment. She has a PhD in Political Economy, focusing on government strategies for economic growth. She been a Diplomat-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), where she conducted research on climate and environmental policy. She served as Sweden’s Ambassador for Corporate Social Responsibility and Ambassador for Ocean, Seas, and Freshwater.
She headed the Marine Branch at the UN Environment Programme, and tackled issues like marine pollution, coral reef protection, and the sustainable blue economy. She led negotiations on sustainable development chapters behalf of the European Commission in EU free trade agreements with ASEAN, MERCOSUR, and ACP regions. Authored Combating Climate Change: A Transatlantic Approach to Common Solutions (2008), and the Handbook on the Economics and Management of Sustainable Oceans, published by Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd (2017).
Upon joining Virgin Atlantic in February of 2020 as the Country Manager for the Caribbean, Hannah Swift successfully navigated the pandemic, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes, driving revenues for the region, whilst raising the brand awareness of the airline. She was also instrumental in delivering new route start-ups such as St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nassau, Turks and Caicos, and most recently the airlines Inter-Island services.
Hannah has lived in the Caribbean for ten years, having moved from the U.K. Prior to her move, Hannah owned a successful digital marketing agency, with clients ranging from high street brands such as Thorntons chocolates and Bon Marche, to B2B Fortune500 companies like Farnell. Her expertise in marketing spans affiliate, social content, digital advertising and more, and she is the proud recipient of several industry awards.
Her time in the Caribbean has seen her take on senior roles within an advertising agency, strategically managing the digital presence for well-known brands such as Flow, Sagicor and Banks Beer.
Alisa Sydow is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at ESCP Business School.
Alisa Sydow primarily teaches entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship with a focus on new technologies and impact.
Her research interests center on entrepreneurship in emerging markets, particularly Kenya and South Africa. She focuses on technology and women's entrepreneurship. She has authored articles published in leading management journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and the Journal of Business Venturing, as well as case studies and papers presented at international conferences including the Academy of Management (AOM), European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), and European Academy of Management (EURAM).
She was selected as part of the 2025 cohort of Thinkers50 Radar, highlighting her as one of the leading emerging voices shaping the future of management and entrepreneurship.
She recently collaborated with UNCTAD on the “Breaking Down Barriers for Women Digital Entrepreneurs: Insights from Africa”.
Alisa holds a Ph.D. in Management and Innovation from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
Outside of academia, Alisa founded Nampelka, a start-up that provides continuous, tailored, and accessible support to African entrepreneurs.
The Hon. Kerrie Symmonds has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in the government of Barbados since 2022, and is also the Senior Minister coordinating Productive Sector.
Since May 2018, Minister Symmonds has served as Minister of Tourism and International Transport; Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship; Minister of Energy and Business Development; and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados.
He was appointed Senior Minister in 2018.
David Szafran has been a lawyer at the Brussels Bar since 1993. He specialises in advising clients on corporate and corporate governance, finance and investment funds, competition law, compliance and risk management, particularly in regulated sectors including the financial sector.
He is also a deputy judge at the Court of First Instance of Brussels, a government commissioner of a public company (SAU), a lecturer in corporate law at the University of Mons-ULB and an assistant lecturer at the ULB.
He was also Secretary General of the Institute of Statutory Auditors for 13 years, member of the Supervisory Board of the FSMA, member of the Audit Committee of the National Bank of Belgium, Vice-President of the Belgian Competition Authority, Chairman of the Audit Committee and of the Remuneration Committee of the SAU, member of the Board of the non-profit organisation Transparency International Belgium, Expert at the National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and was Chair of the 30th Session of ISAR (UNCTAD).
David Szafran holds a law degree from the ULB and a master's degree in economic and financial law from the ULB.
He regularly writes and lectures on financial law, auditing, accounting, competition law, corporate law and corporate governance. He is the author of a monograph on auditor independence.
András Szorényi joined the Global Cities Hub after 20 years of distinguished diplomatic career. He worked in different capacities in Brussels, covering EU affairs, Washington D.C. dealing with bilateral relations and in Geneva, working with the United Nations and other International Organizations. He has first-hand experience of negotiating in the European Union and the UN system as well as conceptualizing and implementing diplomatic initiatives on a wide variety of issues.
With a deep knowledge of international relations, he always focuses on new global developments and emerging challenges. He has a broad understanding of the engagement of non-state actors on multi-stakeholder platforms. He has been particularly interested in the increasing influence of non-state actors on the development of international relations since his Ph.D. research.
Dr. Szorényi holds a Ph.D. in International Economics from Corvinus University, a DEA in Comparative Political Sciences from Sciences Po Paris and a Master degree in International Relations from the University of Economics in Budapest.
Joanna Szychowska has been appointed Director of Asia (I), Services and Investment, Digital Trade, Intellectual Property and Public Procurement in DG Trade of the European Commission in February 2022.
She is responsible for the EU trade and investment strategy and policy towards the Far East. She also leads the development, negotiation and implementation of rules and policies in the fields of services and digital trade, investments and intellectual property - in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora.
From June 2015 to January 2022, she was heading Mobility Unit in DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
Her responsibilities focused on strengthening competitiveness of the European automotive industry, implementation of the regulatory framework and international harmonization of requirements.
Before joining the Mobility Unit, she was Head of Unit in charge of EU public procurement policy and enforcement of the legislation in selected EU Member States.
She was previously a member of the Cabinet of Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry and between 2004 and 2007, a member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Danuta Hübner, responsible for Regional Policy.
In 1996 Ms. Szychowska joined the Office of the Committee for European Integration in Warsaw, where she was involved in the harmonisation of Polish law with EC law and the preparation of accession negotiations, from 2001 as Director of the Department of European Law.
Ms. Szychowska studied Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw and the University of Utrecht and accomplished European Studies at the College of Europe, Natolin. In 1999, she passed her final judge's examination at the Warsaw Court of Appeal.
Sainabou Taal heads the fisheries subsidies work at the World Trade Organization. Sai previously worked in the WTO Development Division, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs and the Gambian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Regional Integration.
Sai holds an LLM from the University of Edinburgh, a Master in International Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute, and a B.A in Economics from the University of Toronto.
Sylvie Tabet is General Counsel at Canada’s Trade Law Bureau where she provides trade and investment law advice to the Government of Canada. She has litigated numerous WTO and investor-state cases on behalf of the Government of Canada and was instrumental in creating Canada's investor state dispute settlement team. In addition, she has extensive experience in negotiating international trade and investment agreements. Notably, she was closely involved in the negotiation of many of Canada’s international trade and investment agreements (including the Bilateral Investment Treaty with China, CPTPP and the Canada-EU Trade Agreement where Sylvie was lead counsel for the Government of Canada) and most recently in the negotiation of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Indonesia and a free trade agreement with ASEAN. She leads Canada’s delegation in the on-going UNCITRAL Working Group III on investor state dispute settlement reform and chairs the OECD track II discussions on the future of investment treaties. She teaches and guest lectures frequently on trade and investment law issues.
Tinashe Tafirenyika is a Spoken Word Artist.
With a belief that art is a catalyst for change, Tinashe Tafirenyikahas disrupted the Zimbabwe poetry scene. In 2017, she became the first woman and youngest person to receive a National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) in spoken word poetry in Zimbabwe. That same year, she also received a Bulawayo Arts Award (BAA) for her poetry.
Tinashe began performing at the Book Cafe in Harare and was a regular at the House of Hunger Poetry Slam and Sistaz Open Mic. She won the Shakespeare 400 year Commemoration Slam Bulawayo in 2016 and has performed at various festivals. In 2018, she became the only person to have won a NAMA twice in the spoken word poetry category. She released her first poetry video, entitled “Sarah Baartman”, that year. At the beginning of 2019, her account of the Zimbabwe Shutdown was published in Brittle Paper, one of Africa’s leading literary websites, and this saw her being announced as one of the new columnists for Konya Shamsrumi, a Nigerian poetry blog, that March.