Betty N. Wainaina is the Program Director of the Multilateral Reform Program at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC).
She is a social development specialist with diverse experience in the development sector, working in several countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Malawi, and Ghana. She has designed programs aimed at promoting institutional strengthening and deepening governance arrangements, including working with executive branches of government, legislatures, local authorities, and civil society.
Her previous roles have been with the World Bank as an economist in the Kenya, Somalia, and Comoros country programmes, respectively. She later joined the Global Centre for Conflict Security and Development, which sought to deepen and advance the community of practice within the World Bank on issues affecting fragile and conflict-affected states. In this role, she supported the engagement of the World Bank at both global and country levels with the g7+ Secretariat and the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and State Building in operationalizing the New Deal for engagement in fragile states. She has also worked for the Heinrich Böll Foundation and has served as a consultant for various United Nations (UN) agencies and other international development organizations.
She possesses a master’s degree in environmental economics from the University of Kent in the UK and a first degree in Environmental Planning and Management from Kenyatta University in Kenya.
Stefan Walcott is a Lecturer and Tutor in Music. He is a performer and a young academic with a focus on the popular music of the English- speaking Caribbean.
Stefan has a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill and currently lectures part-time at the University of the West Indies. He also tutors at the Barbados Community College, where he teaches Caribbean Music, Music History and runs the Caribbean Music Ensemble.
Stefan has self-published three books, 60 Caribbean Folk Songs, 20 Bajan folks and Caribbean Composer’s Handbook, which is being used in the education system in Barbados. He blogs at Caribbean Music, which discusses music and culture.
Stefan also leads a unique musical ensemble called the 1688 Collective and has also created Handel’s Caribbean Messiah, an original re-working of Handel’s Messiah for using Caribbean folk and popular culture.
Dr. Andrew Walker is a Vice President of The Global Gas Centre (GGC), a non-profit organization, based in Geneva, dedicated to executives and experts of natural gas companies who want to share views and best practices on sustainable energy with a particular focus on natural gas. He is also the Vice President for LNG Strategy and Communication for Cheniere Energy, the leading U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter. He is located in London and is responsible for the LNG Strategy and Market Outlook of Cheniere, reporting into the Chief Commercial Officer. Until October 2015 he was Vice President for Global LNG - and prior to that Head of LNG Strategy - at BG Group where he worked for over 20 years before joining Cheniere. During his career in LNG, he has been located in Singapore, Egypt, the USA and UK and has worked on numerous LNG projects including Atlantic LNG in Trinidad and Tobago, Egyptian LNG, and Dragon LNG in the UK. Dr. Walker has a Doctorate in Geology from Imperial College, University of London.
Frances Wall is a Professor of Applied Mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines (CSM), University of Exeter. Her research interests are focused on critical raw materials, specifically rare earth elements and lithium, with a global perspective on geology, responsible sourcing, processing, and circular economy. Frances is leading the UKRI Met4Tech circular economy centre for technology metals (Met4Tech.org), a member of the UK Critical Minerals Expert Committee, and is involved in various critical minerals regional development projects in the South West of the UK. She is also a member of the UNECE UN Resource Management System sub-group of the Expert Group on Resource Management and a non-executive director of E-Tech Resources, which is exploring for rare earths in Namibia. Frances is a recipient of the William Smith medal of the Geological Society of London for her contribution to the applied and economic aspects of geology and was named one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining in 2016.
Ms. Waly is the Director-General/Executive Director of the United Nations Office at Vienna/United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. She holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. She previously served as Minister of Social Solidarity of Egypt and chaired the Executive Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs. She has also served as Assistant Resident Representative at the United Nations Development Program. Ms. Waly holds an MA and a BA from Colorado State University (US) in Humanities. She is fluent in Arabic, English and French and has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Yan Wang is a Senior Academic Researcher with the Global China Initiative at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and a member of the Prominent Expert Group appointed by the United Nations Secretary General for the FfD4 process.
She also works as a consultant to the World Bank Group, and previously worked as Senior Economist and Team Leader at the World Bank for 20 years and served as Coordinator of the OECD-DAC and China Study Group for two years (2009-2011). She is the author or coauthor of four books and dozens of papers and country reports and has twice received the prestigious Sun Yefang Award in Economics.
Having retired from the World Bank, her recent research has extended beyond her interests developed during her career at the Bank, covering development financing including but not limited to China-Africa cooperation, the spatial impact of Chinese investment in Africa, debt restructuring, green transformation and the quality of growth in the Global South countries.
Sonam P. Wangdi is the Secretary, National Environment Commission and Chair of the LDC Group under UNFCCC and selected as one of the 100 most influential people in climate policy by apolitical. He is a recipient of the Civil Service Gold Medal for 30 years of distinguished service. Prior to his present post, he was Director-General of the Department of Hydropower and Power Systems. He is a well-known Trade and Industry expert in Bhutan and in the region.
He served as the Chief Negotiator of Bhutan for Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements, and as Deputy Chief Negotiator for Bhutan’s accession to the WTO from 2005 till 2012. He has represented the country in numerous negotiations, conferences, roadshows, seminars, and workshops abroad. He has served on some of the most important Task Forces, Committees, and Boards instituted by the Royal Government from time to time. In addition to his official functions, he serves on the Boards of Government Owned Companies, Public Listed Companies, Autonomous Agencies and serves as the Co-Chair to LoCAL. He has a wealth of experience in the economic sector at policy, enforcement, and corporate domains.
Dr. Cardinal Warde is a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is one of the world’s leading experts on materials, devices and systems for optical information processing and displays.
His current research is focused on the development of opto-electronic neural-network co-processors that give computers brain-like computing power, and on membrane-mirror-based spatial light modulators for optical switching and projection displays.
His earlier research contributions are on transparent liquid-crystal micro-displays for virtual-reality eyeglasses, and spectro-polarimetric imaging sensors for remote-sensing applications. Professor Warde holds 12 patents on spatial light modulators, displays, and optical information processing systems, and has published over 150 technical papers and three textbook chapters in these areas. In addition to his teaching and research activities, Professor Warde serves (since 1997) as the Faculty Director of the Office of Engineering Outreach Programs (OEOP) at MIT.
Attiya Waris is the first female Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Nairobi. Attiya is the only Professor of Fiscal Law and Policy in Eastern and Central Africa. She holds a PhD in Law and is a specialist in Fiscal Law, Policy and Development.
She is an advocate, company secretary and arbitrator of over 20 years standing and was the founding Chair, Fiscal Studies Committee from 2017-2020. She spearheaded the first agreement on sharing of data between a University and a revenue agency globally in 2016.
She teaches at the Law School, University of Nairobi, Kenya and has previously taught in South Africa, Rwanda, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. She has researched and published on global, African, Asian, European as well as Latin American issues. Her book 'Tax and Development in 2013 is the first publication globally that links the areas of tax and human rights and her more recent publication Financing Africa is the first publication globally to map out African fiscal systems. She was a nominee in 2017 for the position of UN Special Rapporteur on Development. She is the current UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and other related international financial obligations of States on Human Rights (August 2021-2024) and is an Observer to the UN Tax Committee.
