Evgeniia is Global Coordinator of the UN Ocean Decade endorsed Programme for Early Career Ocean Professionals, or ECOP Programme. The goal of the Programme is to support early career ocean professionals in their capacity development and work by providing meaningful networking, training, professional development, funding opportunities and creating capacity for cooperation and knowledge exchange.
Evgeniia’s research interests include impacts of climate change on coastal railway infrastructure and coastal tourism, relationship between climate change and food security, marine pollution, and ocean clusters.
Eranda Kotelawala was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Solomon Islands Ports Authority in February 2017. Prior to that, he was the COO of Fiji Ports Corporation Limited managing five major ports of entry into Fiji. Eranda brings 25 years of management experience predominantly in shipping and several other industry verticals from Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, South Africa, Sultanate of Oman, and Singapore.
He has consulted on Business Process Re-engineering Projects in major Port projects in the South Pacific, the Gulf Region and South Africa. Eranda holds a master's degree in management from Aberdeen Business School and further specialized in Business Process Re-Engineering and Franchise Business in Entrepreneurship.
He is a Chartered Fellow of Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK, Fellow of Chartered Management Institute UK, Associate Fellow of The Nautical Institute UK, He is also a full member of Institute of Management Consultants Australia. Eranda is also the current IAPH (International Association of Ports and Harbors) Vice President for Southeast Asia and Oceania.
H.E. Mr. Ahmed Kouchouk was appointed the Minister of Finance of Egypt in July 2024. He served as the Vice Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies and institutional Reform from March 2016 to July 2024. Since then, he has been playing a leading role in planning and implementing Egypt’s macroeconomic and fiscal policies and reforms. He has also been the Chief Negotiator and Government focal point with the IMF since 2016.
He served as a Board Member at the Central Bank of Egypt from April 2016 to June 2018, at Egypt Air Holding Company from 2018-2020 and at Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO) from 2021- April 2022. He had been also entitled as a board member in several other institutions over the past years.
Mr. Ahmed Kouchouk is a professional economist and policy advisor with almost 25 years of applied experience. He worked as a Senior Economist for the World Bank from June 2013 to March 2016. Furthermore, he worked for the Ministry of Finance in several leading roles for more than 14 years including as the Vice Minister, the Economic Advisor, and the Director of the Macro Fiscal Unit. He also served for the Ministry of External Trade and the Ministry of Economy in Egypt.
He earned his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2010 and a master’s degree in economics from York University in the United Kingdom in 2002. He also had a B.S., in Economics in 1999 from the American University in Cairo.
Prof. Maria Koundoura is Professor of Literature and Transnational Culture at Emerson College, Boston, where she is also Special Advisor to the Provost. She is the author of the books The Greek Idea: The Formation of National and Transnational Identities and Transnational Culture, Transnational Identity: The Politics and Ethics of Global Culture Exchange. She has published many articles on aesthetics, ethics, and politics as they intersect and form national and transnational narratives and spaces.
She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her areas of academic interest span culture, nation, and identity; discourses on modernity; literary studies; postcolonial studies; transnational culture studies; translation; and literary theory.
Dr. Przemyslaw Kowalski is a Senior Economist at the OECD’s Trade and Agriculture Directorate, where is responsibilities include international trade in critical raw materials. He previously served as President of the Center for Social and Economic Research in Poland and held academic positions in economics at Sciences Po and the University of Sussex. He has contributed to numerous articles and books on economics and economic policy and has held various consultancy and advisory roles in international macroeconomics and trade.
H.E. Mr. Faiyaz Siddiq Koya, a Lawyer by profession is theFijian Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, at the Ministry responsible for creating a "Brighter EconomicFuture for All".
Prior to joining the Fijian Government as the Fijian Minister forCommerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, H. E. Mr. FaiyazSiddiq Koya held numerous Ministerial Portfolios within theFijian Government, as the Fijian Minister for Lands and MineralResources and Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism.
Richard Kozul-Wright is the director of UNCTAD’s globalization and development strategies division.
He has worked at the UN in both New York and Geneva and published widely on economic issues, including in the Economic Journal, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the Journal of Development Studies, and the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
He has co-written books such as The Resistible Rise of Market Fundamentalism with Paul Rayment and co-edited volumes of Transnational Corporations and the Global Economy, Economic Insecurity and Development, Securing Peace, Climate Protection and Development and Industrial Policy.
He also co-edited Transforming Economies: Making Industrial Policy Work for Growth, Jobs and Development with the International Labour Organization.
He holds a PhD degree in economics from the University of Cambridge in the UK.
Gambah Kpante est Cofondatrice et Responsable Production de CHOCOTOGO qui est la première chocolaterie au Togo créée en 2014. Elle a développé une expertise en tout ce qui concerne la valeur ajoutée au cacao du Togo, la transformation agroalimentaire, la recherche de marché et le développement communautaire. Elle a aussi participé au programme Mandela Washington Fellowship / YALI cohorte 2016 où elle a suivi des cours de business and entrepreneurship à Purdue University aux USA. Elle a également fait un stage dans la première chocolaterie aux USA certifiée en Bio équitale: THEO CHOCOLATE.
Gambah est également promotrice d’une ferme agricole et milite dans plusieurs associations de femmes chef d’entreprises au Togo.
Sa passion est l’entrepreneuriat Agricole, l’autonomisation de la femme et de la jeune fille ainsi que l’épanouissement des enfants
Caitlin Kraft-Buchman is CEO/Founder of Women at the Table, a growing global CSO based in Geneva – and the first organization to focus on systems change by helping women gain influence in sectors that have key structural impact: economy, democracy and governance, technology, and sustainability.
Women at the Table exposes the systematic exclusion of women in defining the rules – and pinpoints strategic changes to laws, regulations and norms to achieve gender equality and strengthen democracy. Caitlin curates a global International Geneva convening on Gender & Cities, notably the Smart Feminist City, which brought Women at the Table to its newest alliance calling for <A+> Alliance: Affirmative Action for Algorithms. She is also one of three co-founders, with the former Director-General of the UN in Geneva, and former US Ambassador to UN in Geneva, of International Gender Champions (IGC) a leadership network of female & male decision-makers to break down gender barriers for system change. It includes hubs in Geneva, New York, Vienna, Nairobi, and The Hague, and counts 200+ Champion heads of organizations including the Secretary General of the UN, heads of the WTO, ILO, WHO, ITU, WIPO, ISO, Perm Reps, Civil Society.