Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Adviser on the oceans to the United Nations Global Compact as well as director of the Food Programme at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

A self-described optimist and global citizen, Vincent has in recent years devoted himself to promoting a food revolution and environmental solutions based on sea resources, especially seaweed. Vincent leads the charitable objectives of the Foundation through the funding of innovative projects to drive safety in the food supply chain.

Partnering with the UN, FAO, World Bank, WWF, universities, NGOs and large brands, Vincent released the “Seaweed Manifesto” and now co-leads the Global Seaweed Coalition with the objective to scale up the seaweed industry safely in order to address some of the world’s most important challenges, such as hunger, global warming, pollution and poverty.

Alex Downes is a Communications Officer at Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. He is a journalist and youth leader, who has had a unique opportunity to view the world from multiple angles. It gave him the ability, not just to see and understand the challenges many people face, but to conceptualise some solutions to these problems.

His personal challenge is to make these solutions a reality by telling stories that change the world.

He’s eager to add to his experiences, and with knowledge in communications, advocacy and international law, and committed to developing journalism to make the Caribbean and wider world a better place, one story at a time.

Born on 25 January 1958 in Cairo, Egypt, Mr. Draganov attended the English Language School in Sofia. He received his MA in International Law at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. Mr. Draganov began his diplomatic career in the Information Department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1985 to 1998 he worked largely on African affairs, serving in the Bulgarian embassies in Ghana and Zimbabwe and in the African Department of the Foreign Ministry. From 1993 to 1998 he was Ambassador to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. In 1998, Mr. Draganov was appointed Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. He served as President of the Conference on Disarmament from August to December 2000. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Draganov held the position of First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. He was in charge of multilateral diplomacy development, disarmament and European integration issues. >He also served as Chairman of the National Commission on UNESCO, Alternate Representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the United Nations Security Council, and Special Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to the Republic of Moldova. Mr. Draganov served a second term as Bulgaria’s Permanent Representative in Geneva from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, he was President of UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board. In that capacity, he contributed to the successful outcome of the Accra Conference, as Chair of the UNCTAD XII Preparatory Committee and the Committee of the Whole. As Deputy Secretary-General, he has helped spearhead UNCTAD’s communications strategy and publications policy, streamline management, and enhance interagency collaboration and technical cooperation activities. The Deputy Secretary-General speaks English, French and Russian, and reads Spanish and Italian. He is married and has a daughter and a son.

Yolanda Drakapoulos is the Acting General Manager of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute. Yolanda has worked in the Jamaican bauxite industry for 25 years, in the exploration and management of the country’s bauxite reserves, and the allocation of bauxite reserves to the bauxite/alumina companies in keeping with Company/Government Agreements. Post-mining, she ensures that all mined-out bauxite lands are satisfactorily restored to a productive state. 
 

Ms. Celeste Drake was appointed as the Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in August 2023. She is a seasoned policy advisor with extensive experience in labour, trade and economic policy.

Ms. Drake began her professional career as a high school economics and world history teacher before transitioning into key advisory roles within the U.S. government.

Most recently, she served as the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council and top labour advisor to President Joseph R. Biden, where she played a pivotal role in shaping labour and industrial strategies. Prior to this, Ms. Drake was appointed as President Biden’s first-ever Made in America Director, where she established and led an office within the Office of Management and Budget, working with employers and trade unions to implement infrastructure, industrial, and procurement policies.

Her previous roles include leading government affairs at the Directors' Guild of America and serving as the Trade and Globalization Policy Specialist at the AFL-CIO. At the AFL-CIO, Ms. Drake was instrumental in advocating for trade policy reforms to support inclusive growth and shared prosperity. She worked closely with governments, trade unions, and employers on major international trade initiatives, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a Master’s degree in Public Policy, and a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Thackwray “Dax” Driver has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago since 2003. He has pioneered numerous new initiatives and activities for the Energy Chamber, including the Safe to Work programme and the Learning Centre. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Caribbean Chambers Network (CARICHAM).

He was previously the Chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Economic Development Board and has been a Board member of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries, the University of Trinidad & Tobago, and T&T Natural Gas Liquids Ltd. Prior to joining the Energy Chamber, he was the coordinator of Trinidad and Tobago’s Agricultural Sector Reform Programme. He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of London.

Valdis Dombrovskis is the European Commission Vice-President responsible for the Euro and Social Dialogue, also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union. Previously, he served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia for three consecutive terms from 2009 to 2014, becoming the longest serving elected Head of government in Latvia’s history.

Before that, Dombrovskis was elected twice as a Member of the European Parliament as part of the Europeans People’s Party (EPP) Group. He was also Head of the Latvian Delegation in the EPP Group. He served as a Member of the Saeima, the Latvian Parliament in 2004 and in 2014.

He also served as Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2004. Previously, he worked as a senior economist and chief economist at the Bank of Latvia from 1998 to 2002. Dombrovskis holds a BA in physics from the University of Latvia and in economics from Riga University of Technology. He also holds an MA degree in physics in from the University of Latvia.

Paul is Chief Executive Officer of the IIRC. Paul is well known and respected in business and in the accounting profession worldwide. Following an entrepreneurial career in the software industry, Paul operated as a non‐executive chairman and director for companies in a variety of sectors until taking over this post. Formerly a Director of the UK Financial Reporting Council; member of the City Takeover Panel; and President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). His high profile work on sustainability matters has included chairing The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) Executive Board and the FEE Sustainability Group.

Pierre du Plessis has worked on various aspects of sustainable development for more than 30 years, with a specialist focus on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation.

He was one of Africa’s lead negotiators during the development of the Nagoya Protocol and has frequently represented Namibia and Africa at the CBD, WIPO and FAO.

Since the year 2000 he has been centrally involved in Namibia’s national efforts to promote the sustainable commercialisation of indigenous plant products, integrate such value chains into the national Community-Based Natural Resource Management programme and develop a functional and user-friendly system to regulate Access and Benefit Sharing. Pierre has practical experience at all levels of biotrade value chains, from organising rural raw material supply chains through processing and marketing to national and international policy development.

During the development of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing he was one of the lead negotiators for the African Group and co-chaired many of the negotiating sessions. He also compiled Namibia’s first greenhouse gas inventory, served on the Namibian Climate Change Committee for many years and has represented Namibia at international negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as at COP 15 where the Kumming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in December 2023.

Mr Jacobus du Toit is currently the Vice-President of the Pan African Federation of Accountants.  He has extensive experience in the accounting profession having been the President of the Eastern, Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants, the Chairman of the Namibian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Chairman of the Public Accountants’and Auditors’ Board of Namibia. After serving as Managing Partner BDO Namibia until 2001 Mr du Toit has held executive positions in the life insurance and healthcare industries and non executive directorships of the Namibian National Water Corporation and the Namibian National Power Corporation.     He has further served as the CFO of the Antwerp Diamond Bank Private Equity Fund.