Paula Baena is the Global Policy Lead for Customs at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), where she advances global customs and trade facilitation as part of ICC’s wider trade policy agenda. In this role, she amplifies the voice of business at international policy discussions and multilateral forums.
Her professional background spans both the public and private sectors, including roles within the economic, commercial, and investment promotion agencies of the diplomatic missions of Australia in Madrid and Spain in Guangzhou, China. In these positions, she supported businesses in navigating market access requirements, export documentation, customs procedures, and other cross-border trade processes essential for successful international expansion.
She holds an MBA in International Business Management from ICEX-CECO, advanced studies from Spain's Diplomatic School and the Instituto Universitario Ortega-Marañón, and bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Humanities. She brings multidisciplinary expertise across trade, diplomacy, and cultural affairs to advance private-sector engagement at international level.
On 2 June 2025, the United Nations General Assembly elected Annalena Baerbock of Germany as President of its eightieth session, which runs from September 2025 until September 2026.
Ms. Baerbock served as Germany’s Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from December 2021 until May 2025. Throughout her career, she has been a strong advocate for the multilateral system with the United Nations at its core.
She was an elected member of the German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) from 2013 until June 2025.
In 2018, she was elected co-chairperson of the Green Party and held the position of party leader until 2022.
Prior to becoming an MP, Annalena Baerbock advised her party’s parliamentary group in the German Bundestag on matters of foreign and security policy and served as chairperson of her party in the federal state of Brandenburg. From 2005 to 2008, she worked for a Member of the European Parliament.
Annalena Baerbock holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and an undergraduate degree in political science from Hamburg University.
David Bahati is the Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, responsible for supervising the implementation of the Industrialization programmes of the country.
Prior to this role, he served as the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning), from 2015 to 2021. During this role, he was responsible for economic development planning of the country.
Currently, he is Member of Parliament (MP) for Ndorwa County West. Since 2006 he has consistently been voted the best performing Member of Parliament and Minister of the Republic of Uganda by the Institute of Strategic Studies.
Throughout his 15 years of Public Service, has been a passionate community leader and advocate with a proven track record of results in the areas of National Planning and Economic Development, Public Sector Financing of SMEs, health, job creation and entrepreneurship.
He holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Cardiff University (UK), Bachelor of Commerce from Makerere University Kampala, is a Fellow of the Certified Chartered Accountants (FCCCA-UK), and a Member of the Institute of Certified Public Accounts of Uganda (ICPAU).
Nima Bahramalian is an Industrial Development Expert at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Over the past ten years he has been working on sustainable development of the seaweed industry in Indonesia with a focus on enhancing its innovation capacity, quality and competitiveness. He has been applying systems theory to better navigate interventions aimed at transformation of seaweed industry towards a sustainable and equitable development path.
He is currently focused on researching and developing projects to leverage seaweed potential for climate action. As a development practitioner he has managed technical assistance projects that promoted sustainable development of productive sectors in Guyana, Uganda, South Africa, Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Viet Nam and the Philippines.
Nima holds a BEng from Tehran Azad University of Science and Research, an MA in International Business from University of Greenwich and an MSc in Urban Economic Development from University College London.
Ali Bahreini is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations at Geneva. Prior to his appointment, since 2016, Mr. Bahreini was, Advisor to the Deputy Minister for Political Affairs at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He was also Ambassador of I.R. Iran to Ethiopia from 2012 to 2016, and simultaneously Permanent Representative of Iran to the African Union. From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Bahreini was also posted to the Iranian Embassy in Berlin. The ambassador Bahreini served as Director of the Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2012, after been Deputy Director of the same Department from 2006 to 2009. His diplomat career has root at same department in which he worked from 1999 to 2002.
Mr. Bahreini holds a PhD in International Law.
Francois Bailet (BSc, DEA, PhD) has been working on ocean affairs issues at all levels for some three decades.
He is currently Senior Legal Officer at the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations where he oversees the Capacity-Building and Trust Funds unit, and coordinates the Maritime Security and Blue Economy clusters and United Nations World Oceans Day.
The current focus of his work rests is assisting developing States in building ocean governance frameworks for sustainable ocean-based economies.
François Bailet, BSc (Environmental Sciences), Diplôme d'Étude Approfondies (Law and Economics of Development) and PhD (International Public Law) with almost 30 years of experience working in oceans and the law of the sea, including assisting States and intergovernmental organizations in developing and implementing ocean governance frameworks at all levels, and in building related human and institutional capacity.
Francois is currently Senior Legal Officer in the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs where he heads up the Capacity-Building and Trust Funds Unit of the. He also coordinates the Division’s Maritime Security and Blue Economy clusters and leads the United Nations marking of World Oceans Day. He founded the United Nations – Nippon Fellowship Programme, and has served as the Secretary of the General Assembly’s Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socio-economic Aspects which produced the first World Ocean Assessment.
Formerly, Francois served as the late Elisabeth Mann Borgese’s Special Assistant until her passing in 2002, after which he was appointed Deputy Executive Director of the International Ocean Institute Network (IOI), then Expert Advisor in Ocean Governance to the IOI, and Honorary Adviser to the President of IOI. He also led the Organization’s delegations to numerous international, regional and national ocean law and policy processes, including those of the United Nations. Francois has held several Adjunct academic appointments, and served as Founding Member and Member of various boards and advisory bodies.
David has been Civil Servant for nearly fifteen years, starting out briefly in the Department for Communities and Local Government before making his way over to the Department for International Development and now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. His current role is as the Head of the Global Climate Finance Department which covers UK International Climate Finance as well as our work on reforming and improving access to global climate finance. Previous roles have including working on nutrition, youth, civil society and a three-year posting in Zimbabwe.
Ana Bakshi is the award-winning inaugural Executive Director of the Oxford Foundry, the University of Oxford’s first multidisciplinary entrepreneurship centre.
She has founded and launched world-leading entrepreneurship and technology centres and accelerators that have upskilled tens of thousands of people, bridging the skills gap for employers, and accelerated hundreds of startups working in high-impact areas including climate change, healthcare equity, and cybersecurity. The portfolios she has enabled are collectively valued at over £250 million, have raised over £75 million in investment and have created 1,000+ jobs.
Ana has been instrumental in creating positive, systemic and cultural transformation within complex, centuries-old educational establishments. Her work has demonstrated the critical, unique role universities can, and should, play in upskilling and reskilling wider populations and accelerating commercially successful, high-impact, purpose-led startups.