Guy Bernard Parmelin is a Swiss Federal Councillor and head of the Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.
He has been a member of the Federal Council since 2016, when he took over as head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport. Since January 2019 he has been head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research.
He was president of the Swiss Confederation in 2021.
Maria Theresa "Tess" Parreño Lazaro is a Filipino diplomat and lawyer who has served as the 29th Secretary of Foreign Affairs since 2025.
Previously, she held the position of Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs from 2022 to 2025 and has worked in various diplomatic roles under multiple Philippine administrations.
Lazaro was the Philippine Ambassador to France and Monaco from 2014 to 2020 and served as Ambassador to Switzerland from 2008 to 2011.
She joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1984 and has since held several administrative and diplomatic positions.
Lazaro obtained her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Maryknoll College (now Miriam College) and completed her Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1983.
Economist-statistician and agribusiness sustainability and development expert, after working in the private sector, in manufacturing and banking in Italy, he joined the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), starting in 1987, as Associate Expert in Papua New Guinea, then holding various position, including Head at the Trade Capacity Building Branch and then as Director of the UNIDO Department of Agribusiness Development.
Policy and strategic advice, negotiation and fund mobilisation, management and operations and sustainable development and ESG, are at the core of his experience. He has successfully built innovative Public-Private Partnerships covering the coffee sector, agribusiness and creative industry value chains. He regularly contributes to specialized magazines and newspapers and is invited to participate in international events as speaker or moderator.
Ephraim Patel is currently serving as the Minister of Trade and Industry of the Republic of South Africa. He is the former Minister of Economic Development.
Mr. Patel studied at the University of the Western Cape and University of Cape Town. He has been heavily involved in labour-government issues as he was the Chief Negotiator on the Labour Relations Act of 1995 and acting President of the South African Labour Research Institute (as of 2014). He was Chief Negotiator for the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Industry (2002) and the National Textile Bargaining Council (2003). He has served as Minister of Economic Development since 2009.
Ambassador Jean-Marie Paugam (France) has held senior management positions in the French Government on trade, most recently as Permanent Representative of France to the WTO.
He has also held a number of senior positions in the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, including as a member of the Executive Committee of the French Treasury. He has also served as Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Centre in Geneva.
He has accumulated a deep and practical knowledge of government practices on trade as well as being familiar with high-level dialogues on trade and international economic operations. He has published a number of articles on trade-related issues, in particular when serving as Senior Research Fellow on International Trade at the French Institute for International Relations (IFPRI).
Ambassador Paugam graduated from ENA in Paris and obtained degrees in Political Science from the Institute of Political Science in Aix-en-Provence and in Law from the Faculty of Law Aix-Marseille III.
Igor Paunovic is a senior economist with degrees from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and the New School for Social Research, New York City, USA.
Mr. Paunovic is currently with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) in Geneva working on issues related to global governance, climate change and development strategies, industrial and fiscal policy, South-South cooperation and regional integration. He is also Chief of the Climate and Development Strategy Unit. At UNCTAD, he earlier worked on economic challenges of the Least Developed Countries. Earlier, he was Chief of the Economic Development Unit of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico. Before that, Mr. Paunovic worked on fiscal issues and structural reforms in Latin American and the Caribbean countries at UN ECLAC in Santiago, Chile. At the beginning of his career, he worked as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Zagreb, Croatia
Harold is Director of Standards at the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the global leader for Impact and Sustainability Reporting. His team is responsible for the development of the Sustainability Reporting Standards like the new GRI 101 Biodiversity 2024, GRI 102 Climate Change 2025 and GRI 103 Energy 2025.
Harold became an expert in public/private standardization and certification initiatives in the Energy and Sustainability field. He has held executive positions in Standardization organizations and part of advisory committees and boards of global certification initiatives. For more than two decades he has been working in the sustainability field.
Harold holds a Bachelor Chemical Engineering and Chemistry (MSc), a premaster Business Administration and is part the Comenius leadership network of the University of Groningen.
Rolph Antoine Payet FRGS is an international policy expert, researcher and speaker on environment, climate and island issues, and was the first President & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Seychelles.
He was Minister of Environment and Energy in the Cabinet of Seychelles from 2012 to 2014.
He is currently United Nations Executive Secretary for the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Convention.