Sofía Boza is the Ambassador of Chile to the WTO, WIPO, UNCTAD, and the ITC since July 2022. She co-coordinates the Joint Statement Initiative on Investment Facilitation for Development at the WTO; in 2023 she chaired the WTO Working Group on Trade and Technology Transfer; and in 2024 the WTO Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Previously, she was associate professor and head of the Department of Rural Management and Innovation at the University of Chile, and professor at its Institute of International Studies, as well as external evaluator for the Budget Office of the Chilean Ministry of Finance.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics (Honors) from the University of Seville, a professional title in Commercial Engineering from the University of Chile, and a master’s in Economic Development and Public Policies and a PhD in Economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Claudio Bozzo is the Global Chief Operating Officer of the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and has held this position since 2014.
He began his career at Reale Mutua Assicurazioni, joining Columbus Travel in 1992 to help develop the Turkish and Caribbean Markets. In 1994, Mr. Bozzo joined MSC in New York, where he worked his way up the ranks, becoming President and CEO of MSC in the United States of America. He now resides and works in Geneva, Switzerland, and supervises the worldwide operations of MSC, including more than 400 offices in 150 countries, with 30000 people. Since 2020, Mr. Bozzi has acted as Chairman of the Safety and Security Council of the World Shipping Council.
He has received numerous awards and accolades for his work in international business and shipping, including being appointed Knight of the Italian Republic in 2004.
Oliver Bradley is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Infrastructure Investing, responsible for Digital Infrastructure Investments within the Infrastructure and Energy Capital division of Macquarie Capital. The Digital Infrastructure team invests directly in and supports the growth of companies that are facilitating the increasing data consumption of businesses and consumers, including fibre networks and data centres. Among other deals, Oliver led Macquarie Capital’s investment into Voneus, a UK rural Fixed Wireless to Fibre broadband developer and Onivia, a new SPV Macquarie established to acquire Fibre to the Home networks in Spain, creating Spain's first and largest wholesale only FTTH network with a footprint in excess of 10m homes.
Karl Branch holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation and the Certified Port Executive designation. He holds both a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics and an MSc in Project Management and Evaluation.
Karl retired as head of the Military Intelligence Unit and was awarded the Chief of Staff Commendation for intelligence and the Efficiency Decoration. Karl introduced the utilization of artificial intelligence from camera monitoring platforms to support Port operations, security and analytics.
He represents the Chairmanship of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the OAS Inter-American Committee on Ports, and is also the chairman of the Stakeholder Steering Committee for the development of the Port Community System for Barbados.
Nicholas Brancker is a Grammy-nominated producer and musician from Barbados who has been making music in the Caribbean for over 30 years. He has produced over 2500 songs for soca/calypso artists such as Krosfyah, Alison Hinds and Square One, Rupee, Machel Montano, David Rudder, Anslem Douglas in the region and has also made a name for himself as a solo artist with two albums to his name and touring the world with artist like Roberta Flack and Eddy Grant.
Nicholas is currently working and performing with a group of young musicians from Barbados as he tries to pass on what he has learnt as well as to cross pollinate musical ideas across generations.
Joyce Brandão is a Brazilian socioenvironmental practitioner-researcher, who is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge (Department of Geography), and part of the Conservation and Development Lab which is led by Professor Rachael Garrett.
Her background is Forestry Engineer (University of São Paulo) and holds a master’s degree in Applied Ecology (University of São Paulo). Joyce has a solid background in rural development and sustainable value chains. During her career, she managed several ground and policy-based innovative projects related to multistakeholder partnerships for socially inclusive climate agriculture, zero deforestation policies and landscape governance in Brazil, and technical collaboration with partners in countries from Latin America (Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay), Africa (Ghana, DRC), Asia (China, Indonesia) and, donors in Europe and the United States. She has worked for several civil society organizations such as WWF-BR and Solidaridad.
Her PhD is focused on understanding how political, economic, and institutional conditions have potentially enabled or constrained forest-focused policies in the agri-food supply chain in the Amazon and Cerrado (Brazilian Savanah) biomes. She aims to contribute to policy-making that supports the rise of transformative and equitable sociobioeconomies.
Ilze Brands Kehris assumed her functions as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights on 14 January 2020, heading the UN Human Rights Office in New York.
Ms. Brands Kehris combines extensive expertise in political science, conflict prevention and human rights, with a specialisation in minority rights, and long-standing experience in intergovernmental fora and with civil society organisations.
From 2017 to 2019, Ms. Brands Kehris served as independent Expert Member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the treaty body monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Between 2016 and 2019, she served as a senior research fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University, in Sweden.
She has previously held several leadership positions in national and regional level human rights organisations, including as Member and Chairperson of the Management Board of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, and Director of the Office of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Ms. Brands Kehris also held the positions as Director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, first Vice-President and Member of the Advisory Committee on the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and Member of the Management Board and Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Board of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. She also served as Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Mills College in California, USA, a Master of Arts in Political Science (International Relations) from Columbia University in New York, USA, where she also pursued Ph.D. studies. Ms. Brands Kehris, who is Latvian, speaks English, Russian, French, Latvian and Swedish.
Alexander Bressers is a Senior Oil Market Analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA), where his primary focus is on global oil demand and prices. Before joining the IEA in 2022, he worked for fifteen years as a commodity portfolio manager and futures trader for a number of banks and investment funds, developing quantitative trading strategies in the energy and agricultural markets. He holds a Master’s degree in economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Ruari Bride joined the secretariat for the UK's National Trade Facilitation Committee in December 2022 and has been working to increase its profile and member engagement ever since.
Prior to starting at HM Revenue and Customs, Ruari worked for four years in agricultural trade at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, specialising in the rice and sugar sectors.