Ricardo Knight is Founder of Barbados eSports Initiative (BeSI). Knight is a pop culture pioneer and entrepreneur specializing in eSports. One of the founders of Highnoon Gaming, he has been competing in eSports from 2009 and has represented Barbados regionally from 2015, picking up multiple championships along the way. With a background in business management, his journeys abroad have inspired him to embark on a mission to improve the quality of regional, competitive eSports to create a strong presence on the international scene.
Knight was instrumental in the creation of the Bim eSports Initiative (BeSI), an organization devoted to the expansion of the pre-existing Barbadian gaming culture and transforming it into an active local industry, thus establishing the country as a major player in a rapidly growing market.
LeAundre Knight is a Consultant specializing in development policy and project development, working most recently on the drafting of various proposals to public ministries and international organizations. He is a young economist and development specialist from Barbados, with a wide array of experience in project management, data analysis and policy development.
He has experience in both the public and private sector working with the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and previously to that, Actavo Barbados.
He is passionate about youth development and has been a member of the UNCTAD Youth Network since his attendance at the previous forum in 2018. He currently sits on the organizational committee supporting the UNCTAD 15 Youth Forum. LeAundre is passionate about educating young people on achieving stability through investing and financial budgeting
Mimoza Kodhelaj is the Director of the Surveillance in Productive Markets Directorate of the Albanian Competition Authority (ACA) since 2019, where she conducts antitrust investigations in different markets. Mimoza is also the Vice Chair of Intergovernmental Working Group on European Integration (IWGEI) Chapter 8: Competition Policy, following the accessing process of Albania in the European Union.
She is graduated in Business Informatics at Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana, in 2007. She completed postgraduate studies in Managerial Control and Information Systems Management at Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands, in 2009, and holds a Master of Science degree in European Economic Studies from the University of Tirana and the University of Bamberg in 2011.
Among other things, Mimoza had international trainings, as she gained traineeship at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Competition, in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010. She has been involved in numerous international events as a moderator, role model, presenter, and organizer with international organizations such as OECD, ICN, TAIEX, IPA Twinning, UNCTAD, etc. Additionally, she has been engaged in teaching at the University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics, where she has conducted seminars as an external assistant in the subjects of MIS and General Informatics, and she is a lecturer at Albanian School of Public Administration where she conducts trainings for the civil servants for EU acquis Chapter 8: Competition Policy.
Mr. Bassolawoè Koka is Director of Local Products Processing at the General Directorate of Industry of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption, Togolese Republic. He is also Administrator of Finance and Banking, and National Coordinator of the Secretariat for the Enhanced Integrated Framework of Togo (EIF-Togo). Mr. Koka is full member of the steering committee of the extractive industries transparency initiative (CP-ITIE), representing the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption. Mr. Bassolawoè Koka is Director of Local Products Processing at the General Directorate of Industry of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption, Togolese Republic. He is also Administrator of Finance and Banking, and National Coordinator of the Secretariat for the Enhanced Integrated Framework of Togo (EIF-Togo). Mr. Koka is full member of the steering committee of the extractive industries transparency initiative (CP-ITIE), representing the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Local Consumption.
Takujiro Kono has been Director of International Affairs Division at the Japan Fair Trade Commission since April 2024.
Previously, he was Counselor for the Secretariat of the Headquarters for Digital Markets Competition at the Cabinet Secretariat. where he addressed various competition issues including cartel case investigations, trade practices, and policy planning since joining the JFTC in 1995.
Jane Korinek is a Senior Economist and Senior Trade Policy Analyst in the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD.
Her recent policy research has examined how trade impacts women and men differently, and how trade policies can support women’s economic empowerment. Her other relevant policy research has been in the areas of global value chains, local content policies, export restrictions, trade and the circular economy, benefits of good regulation in the extractive industries, mining services and their competitiveness, impacts of regional trade agreements, trade costs and short-term trade finance.
Jane is a Canadian and American national and holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from Duke University and graduate degree in International Economics from Stanford University.
Lara Koritzke is Director of Communications & Marketing at the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT) where she leads efforts to build awareness of UEBT and the work of its member companies to ethically source ingredients from biodiversity.
She joined the organisation in 2018 with more than 15 years of experience in global sustainability programmes. This includes six years as director of communications and development at ISEAL Alliance, the global membership organisation for ambitious sustainability systems.
Prior to that, she was with Rainforest Alliance for eleven years as their director of institutional relations, working on program development and partnerships for sustainable agriculture and forestry in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
She holds degrees from Yale University and the Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership Programme where she focused on partnership dynamics between environmental groups and companies.
For several years Lara served as a faculty member of the Kinship Conservation Fellows, where she delivered annual lectures on certification and sustainability standards. She is based in Toronto.
