Gyang Demitta Chinwude is currently Head of Customs Cooperation, Trade Facilitation and Transit as well as Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General, AfCFTA Secretariat. Before joining the AfCFTA Secretariat, she was Assistant Chief Trade Negotiator and Head of the AfCFTA/ECOWAS department at the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations (NOTN). In her capacity as head of this unit, she was the Alternate Chief Trade Negotiator for Nigeria during the Phase I negotiations of the AfCFTA Agreement. Prior to her deployment to the Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiations, Mrs. Gyang was a Commercial Officer at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Nigeria, 2006 – 2016 where she served in the Task Force for Trade Facilitation that eventually became the National Committee on Trade facilitation after Nigeria ratified the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. She proceeded to Geneva, Switzerland in 2012 for an Internship at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and was a part of the Project Implementation Unit of the World Bank Growth and Employment Project (GEM), 2014 – 2016. She holds a master’s degree in International Law and Economics (MILES) from the World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland.
John W.H. Denton AO is the Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He is a global business leader, international advisor on policy and a legal expert on international trade and investment.
He serves as Board member of the UN Global Compact, Founding Member of the Business 20 (B20), and Co-Chair of Italy B20 working group on Finance and Infrastructure. He is Co-Founder of the Australia-China CEO Roundtable and Patron of UNHCR in Australia.
Board member of the IFM Global Investors - a global institutional investment manager, John is also Chair of the Asia Pacific advisory board of Veracity, a global advisory group based in New York, and Chair of the Moeller Institute advisory board at the University of Cambridge.
He also serves on the Boards of the UNDP (New York) impact investing steering group, and of UNICEF's global education initiative: GenU. He joined the Advisory Board of the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB) and the G7 Working Group on Impact Investment.
Tatiana Der Avedissian is head of business development for Economist Impact's World Ocean Initiative and sits on The Economist Group's sustainability steering committee.
A communications specialist, outside of work she uses her expertise to advise and support other organisations with their strategic communication and business needs. She helps lead the strategy and fundraising efforts for two charities in the UK, serving as trustee and co-president of Alkionides UK, and chair of the board of trustees of the Armenian Institute. She is co-president of the Harvard Kennedy School Women's Network and sits on the board of the UK-Cyprus Enterprise Council and The Armenia Project.
Der Avedissian has taught ethics and politics for the Escuela de Gobierno Universidad Hemisferios in Ecuador as a guest professor.
Mr. Antony Derjacques was appointed Seychelles Minister for Transport on 3rd November 2020.
The following falls under his portfolio: The Department of Land Transport, the Department of Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine, Air Seychelles. Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority, Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority, Seychelles Lands Transport Authority, Seychelles Ports Authority, Seychelles Public Transport Corporation and Vehicle Testing Station.
He is a Lawyer and been in practice for 30 years. He was trained in British Universities.
Martyna Derszniak leads the international projects and policy coordination of Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in the field of competition and consumer protection. The International Cooperation Office conducts projects, bilateral cooperation initiatives, and is involved in the cooperation of consumer and competition in EU structures as well as networks in OECD, UNCTAD, ICN and ICPEN.
Having worked on a wide range of public policies as a consultant, Martyna has not only gained expertise in the field of socio-economic development and competitiveness as well as territorial cooperation but also developed a critical perspective on policy-making and the processes of governance and strategy development. As a public policy expert, Martyna has written and contributed to a number of documents, reports, publications, policy briefs on a variety of topics. Martyna has also held workshops and participated in conferences in a variety of settings with the aim of disseminating the findings of her work.
Martyna holds a PhD from Bern University in Switzerland.
Her Excellency Dr. Halimah DeShong currently serves as Ambassador and Second Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the United Nations. She was seconded from her post as Head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, where she is also Senior Lecturer.
An experienced feminist researcher, she specialises in gendered and gender-based violence, feminist methodologies, anti-colonial feminisms, qualitative interviewing and analysis. She is the co-editor of Methodologies in Caribbean Research on Gender & Sexuality (2021). Her scholarly work is published in a wide range of peer-reviewed academic journals and books. She is single and joint editor of four special issues of academic journals on Feminist Methodologies, Men and Masculinities, and Gender, Sexuality and Feminism in the Caribbean. She was recipient of a UWI, Cave Hill Campus Research Award for outstanding research.
Dr DeShong has advised Caribbean governments on gender-based violence policies and laws, is the author of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) National Gender-based Violence Action Plan and has jointly designed a GBV/HFLE curriculum for post-secondary school students in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. She was also the lead researcher and author of the qualitative component of the UN Women/CARICOM/Caribbean Development Bank Women’s Health Survey on violence against women in Grenada.
Elizabeth Dewar is an Ocean and Circular Economy Consultant at UNCTAD, where she supports developing countries in designing and implementing inclusive, sustainable ocean economy strategies.
Her work focuses on nature-based solutions, circular value chains - particularly seaweed - and innovative finance tools such as debt-for-nature swaps.
With an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford and a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham, Elizabeth brings a science-policy approach to building resilient coastal economies, enhancing ocean governance, and advancing environmental and economic priorities in line with international development goals.
