Keynote Speakers

Stefan Löfven
Former Prime Minister of Sweden; Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Advisory Board for Effective Multilateralism; Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Governing Board Chair

Stefan Löfven is Chair of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Governing Board as of June 2022. Löfven was the Prime Minister of Sweden from October 2014 to November 2021 and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021. His background includes extensive experience from various domestic and international assignments. In 2022, he was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to co-lead a High-level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism in preparation for the Summit of the Future. He was previously the International Secretary of the Swedish trade union IF Metall and, subsequently, its Chair (2006-12). He was also a board member of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (2006-12), a board member of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (2010-12), Deputy Chair of the Swedish Trade Council (2004-12) and a board member of the Olof Palme International Centre (2002-2006).

Hilda Cathy Heine
President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands

President Hilda C. Heine, Ed. D, of the Republic of the Marshall Islands represents Aur Atoll and is one of four women in the Nitijela (Parliament). She was the first women to be chosen as President from 33 elected senators in the Marshall Island Nitijela serving in this capacity from 2016-2020 and was re-elected as Head of State following the November 2023 general election.
President Heine previously served as Minister of Education from 2012-2015. As Minister of Education, President Heine successfully passed legislation establishing a separate and independent Public School System for the Marshall Islands, giving it more autonomy including the ability to recruit, set compensation packages and manage its own professional staff. Prior to entering politics, President Heine served the Government of the Republic of the Marshal Islands as a classroom teacher, school counselor, college president and Secretary of Education. During her tenure as President of the College of the Marshall Islands, President Heine supervised the transformation of the College from a continuing education program into a fully operational and fully accredited community college.
President Heine relocated to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1995 where she worked for the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) for ten years in various capacities including as Director of Policy and Capacity Building, as the Scholar for Freely Associated State (FAS) Education, and as the Program Director of the Pacific Comprehensive Assistance Center, the post she held until 2010 when she ran for political office.
In 2019, the Chancellorship for the University of the South Pacific (USP), a premier higher education institution serving students from Pacific member countries, was conferred on President Heine. In 2021, President Heine was elected as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council for USP. President Heine is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the East-West Center, a member of Pacific Elders' Voice and other international organizations. She has also served as an advisor to the United Nations Climate Change Conference. President Heine is a crusader for women's right and currently serves as an advisor to the Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), a non-governmental organization that she co-founded with other Marshallese women leaders in 1987; WUTMI strengthens the voices of RMI women by promoting human rights and good governance, the Marshallese culture, and women empowerment in the economic and political spaces. Under President Heine' leadership, the Pacific Women Leaders Coalition was formed in 2019 to provide support and advocacy for Pacific women leaders.
President Heine was born on Jaluit Atoll to Revered Bourne and Kathy Heine in 1951 where she grew up and attended public school; following secondary level education at Marshall Islands High School. She graduated from Cottage Grove High School and attended University of Oregon (1970), where she earned her undergraduate degree. She obtained a master's degree at the University of Hawaii in 1975 and an Educational Leaders doctorate at the University of Southern California in 2004. President Heine was awarded three honorary Doctorate Degrees from the College of Marshall Islands; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Guam in 2016; and a Doctor of Philosophy from Fu Jen Catholic University in 2019.
President Heine and her husband, Thomas Kijiner Jr., have 3 children and 5 grandchildren. She enjoys reading historical and contemporary writings with special emphasis on education and social administrations in Small Island Developing States and enjoys baking and listening to music.

Mari Elka Pangestu
Former Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank

Mari Pangestu was the World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships, March 2020-2023. Prior to joining the Bank Mari Pangestu served as Indonesia's Minister of Trade from 2004 to 2011 and as Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy from 2011 to 2014. She has had vast experience of over 30 years in academia, second track processes, international organizations and government working in areas related to international trade, investment and development in multilateral, regional and national setting. Ms Pangestu is highly regarded as an international expert on a range of global issues and has served on a number of boards and task forces such as, the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington D.C and commissioner for the Low Carbon Development Initiative of Indonesia as well as an executive board member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). She has also served on the board of a number of private sector companies and is currently a non executive director on the Board of AIA. Currently, she is a Professor of International Economics at the University of Indonesia and a Board Member of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta. She is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Senior Fellow at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and Honorary Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. She obtained her bachelor's and master's degree in economics from the Australian National University, and her doctorate in economics from the University of California at Davis.

Paolo Gentiloni
Commissioner for Economy, European Commission

Paolo Gentiloni has been European Commissioner for the Economy since December 2019.
He previously served as Italy's Prime Minister (2016-2018), Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2014-2016) and Minister of Communications (2006-2008). He was a Member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies for more than 18 years, from 2001 to 2019.
Other posts Gentiloni has held include Chairman of Italy's Broadcasting Services Watchdog Committee (2005-2006), Spokesperson for the Mayor of Rome and Councillor in the City of Rome (1993-2000). Prior to entering politics, he worked as a professional journalist.
Born in 1954, Gentiloni graduated in Political Sciences from La Sapienza, Rome.
He is the author of "La sfida impopulista" (the (Un)populist challenge), published in 2018.

Ngozi Okonjo-iweala
General Director of World Trade Organization

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She is an economist and international development expert with over 30 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 - 2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014 - 2020) and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate.  Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an AU COVID-19 Special Envoy and WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala served twice as Nigeria's Finance Minister (2003-2006, 2011-2015), the first woman to hold the position, and spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director.
In 2020 Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named Forbes African of the Year. She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (2015) and by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years. She holds a Bachelor's in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Participants from Ten thinktanks

Ettore Greco
Executive Vice President, Institute of International Affairs (IAI), Italy

Ettore Greco is Executive Vice President of the IAI and also head of the Italy's foreign policy and the Multilateralism and global governance programmes of the institute. He was also Director of the IAI from 2008 to 2017. He worked as visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution from January 2006 to July 2007. He taught at the universities of Parma and Bologna. From 2000 to 2006 he worked as correspondent for the Economist Intelligence Unit. From 1993 to 2000 he directed the IAI's program on Central and Eastern Europe. He was also Deputy Director of the IAI from 1997 to 2008. From 2000 to 2006 he was Editor of The International Spectator. He is the author of a number of publications on the EU's institutions and foreign policy, transatlantic relations and the Balkans. He has been a free-lance journalist since 1988.

ONG Keng Yong
Executive Deputy Chairman, S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore

Ambassador ONG Keng Yong is Executive Deputy Chairman of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore since November 2014.  Concurrently, he is Ambassador-at-Large at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, non-resident High Commissioner to Pakistan and non-resident Ambassador to Iran.  Mr. Ong also serves as Chairman of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF).
Mr. Ong was High Commissioner of Singapore to Malaysia from July 2011 to October 2014.  He served as Secretary-General of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), based in Jakarta, Indonesia, for five years from January 2003.
He was Singapore's High Commissioner to India and concurrently Ambassador to Nepal from 1996 to 1998.  From September 1998 to December 2002, he was Press Secretary to the then Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr. Goh Chok Tong. From 2008 to 2011, he served as Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Carlos Ivan Simonsen Leal
President, Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Brazil

Professor Carlos Ivan Simonsen Leal is President of the Getulio Vargas Foundation since August 2000. In 1980, he graduated in Civil Engineering from the Engineering School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), but opted for an academic life and graduated in Mathematical Economics from the "Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada", in 1982. Doctor degree at the "Escola de Pós Graduação em Economia" - EPGE of Getulio Vargas Foundation (1980-1982) and obtained the title of Doctor in Economics from Princeton University (USA) in 1986. At FGV, he held the following positions: director of FGV Business, 1992-4; general director of EPGE, 1994-7; and vice-president of FGV, 1997-2000.

Kudo Yasushi
President, The Genron NPO, Japan

Yasushi Kudo is the founder and president of the Genron NPO since its establishment in 2001. In 2005, he launched annual civil dialogue "Tokyo-Beijing Forum" and joint opinion poll between Japan and China, which have been conducted over the 19 years since then. In 2013, he newly launched a dialogue, the Japan-Korea Future Dialogue, between Japan and Korea and has conducted a comparative opinion poll on impression of each other's country.
From 2012, Mr. Kudo has served as Japanese delegation of the Council of Councils, an international think tank network initiated by the Council on Foreign Relations. "The Asia Forum of Opinion Leaders" has also been established as a venue for open and free debate for intellectuals in Japan and Southeast Asian countries to jointly identify common challenges, and advocate solutions to them, while collaborating to bolster democracy and address challenges to democracy.

Sunjoy Joshi
Chairman and Chief Executive, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India

Mr. Sunjoy Joshi Heads the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi as its Chairman and Chief Executive. He has over the last 10 years spearheaded the rise of the ORF as India's premier think tank and window into the world of Global Affairs.
He joined the Madhya Pradesh Cadre of the Indian Administrative Services in 1983. Took premature retirement in 2009 in order to pursue his academic interests. He has been Visiting Associate at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London and Distinguished Visitor to the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, University of Stanford, USA. He speaks, publishes and comments on the world of technology, energy, and development, framing them in the context of global shifts and the challenges to growth and employment faced by emerging economies. Has a regular Youtube commentary on Global and Current Affairs called India's World which is also available as a podcast. Twitter: @Sunjoyj

James M. Lindsay
Senior Vice President, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the United States

James M. Lindsay is senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he oversees the work of the more than six dozen fellows in CFR's David Rockefeller Studies Program　as well as CFR's eleven fellowship programs.
He has written widely on the American foreign-policymaking process and the domestic politics of American foreign policy. His latest book is The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership, co-authored with Ivo H. Daalder. His previous book with Ambassador Daalder, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy, was awarded the 2003 Lionel Gelber Prize. Dr. Lindsay writes The Water's Edge blog and hosts The President's Inbox podcast.

Stefan Mair
Director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Germany

Since October 2020, Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and Executive Chairman of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). 2010-2020 Member of the Executive Board of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), 2007-2009 Research Director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), 1992-2007 and 2009-2010 research associate at SWP, until March 2001 head of the Middle East and Africa Research Division, 2001-2007 and 2009-2010 member of SWP's executive board. 1992 Doctorate, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. 1989-1992 PhD scholarship at the IFO Institute for Economic Research, Munich, Developing Countries Department.

Thomas Gomart
Director, French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)

Dr. Thomas Gomart (PhD in History at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and EMBA at HEC) is the Director of Ifri since 2015. He has published extensively on Russia, energy and digital issues, think tanks and country risk. Among his publications: Notre intérêt national (co-directed with Thierry de Montbrial), Odile Jacob, 2017 ; L'Affolement du monde, Tallandier, 2019 (Prix Louis Marin & Prix du Livre de géopolitique) ; Guerres invisibles, Tallandier, 2021. His most recent book - Les ambitions inavouées, Tallandier - was published in January 2023. Thomas Gomart has been a member of the Strategic Review Committee on the Strategic Review of Defence and National Security 2017 (French Ministry of Armed Forces). He is a member of the scientific committee of the Institute of Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN) and of the editorial board of the French journals Politique étrangère, Revue des deux mondes and Etudes. He is Chevalier de l'Ordre national du mérite

Bronwen Maddox
Director and Chief Executive, The Royal Institute of International Affairs

Bronwen Maddox took up the post of Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House in August 2022. Before joining Chatham House, Bronwen was Director of the Institute for Government (2016-2022), an independent think tank based in London promoting better government. From 2010 to 2016 she was editor and chief executive of Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine. Before that, she served as chief foreign commentator, foreign editor and US editor at The Times, after a period at the Financial Times where she ran award-winning investigations and wrote economics editorials. Before becoming a journalist, Bronwen was an investment analyst in the City and a director of Kleinwort Benson Securities, where she ran its highly-rated team analysing world media stocks.
Bronwen is a Visiting Professor in the Policy Institute at King's College London, Honorary Governor of Ditchley, an honorary fellow of the British Academy, and a council member of Research England, one of the research councils of UK Research & Innovation. She writes frequent op-ed columns for the Financial Times and broadcasts widely. Bronwen has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from St John's College, Oxford.

Paul Samson
President, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Canada

Paul Samson is President of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He previously held senior positions in the Government of Canada including assistant deputy minister-level roles with Global Affairs Canada and Finance Canada, and as associate deputy minister with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Among other positions, Paul served as Director for Egypt, Canada, and Ethiopia at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and as Canada's deputy for finance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. He was co-chair of the G20 Framework Working Group on the global economy during five different presidencies. Earlier in his career, Paul worked with Mikhail Gorbachev at Green Cross International in Geneva and held fellowships with Pacific Northwest Labs, the Peace Research Institute, Oslo and was a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Paul completed a Doctorate and an M.A. in international relations at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, and a B.A. at the University of British Columbia. He completed post-doctoral studies in global environment assessment at Harvard University.

Rohinton P. Medhora
Distinguished fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Canada

Rohinton Medhora is a distinguished fellow and former president of the Centre for International Governance Innovation and Professor of Practice at the Institute for the Study of International Development at McGill University. His fields of expertise are international economic relations, innovation policy, development economics and governance.
Rohinton is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and is a member of the Commission on Global Economic Transformation co-chaired by Nobel economics laureates Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz.  He previously sat on The Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030 and is a founding member of its successor, the Digital Transformations for Health Lab.   In 2021-22 he chaired the Ontario Workplace Recovery Advisory Committee.
Rohinton received his doctorate in economics in 1988 from the University of Toronto, where he subsequently taught. He has published extensively in professional and non-technical journals and has produced several books.

Guest Speakers

Seiji Kihara
Former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary, Acting Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Mr. Seiji Kihara is serving his fifth term as a member of the House of Representatives and is currently the Acting Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (as well as the Special Advisor to the Chairperson of the Policy Research Council).
Mr. Kihara was born in 1970 and began his career at the Ministry of Finance in 1993 after graduating from the University of Tokyo with a B.A. in Law. He held numerous positions in the Ministry and also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), receiving his M.A. Mr. Kihara became the first Japanese official to be seconded to Her Majesty's Treasury in the United Kingdom.
He then left the Ministry in 2005 and ran successfully for a seat in the House of Representatives. In 2013-14, Mr. Kihara served as the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. He later served as the State Minister for Foreign Affairs (2015-16), Deputy Chairperson and Chief Secretary of the LDP Policy Research Council (2017-20), Chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Cabinet (2020),
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary (2021-23), and Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on national security affairs and nuclear disarmament / non-proliferation issues (2021-23 (except Aug 2022-Nov 2022)).
In September 2023, he left the Cabinet Office and was appointed as the Acing Secretary-General of the LDP (as well as the Special Advisor to the Chairperson of the Policy Research Council).

Hyoung-zhin Kim
Visiting Fellow, Institute for Future Strategy, SNU / PhD student, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and Visiting Fellow, Waseda University, Japan, Former Deputy National Security Advisor, Office of National Security,South-Kore

Dec.1999 First Secretary, Korean Embassy in the People's Republic of China
Aug.2002 Assistant Secretary, Office of the President
Jul.2003 Director, North America Division 1, MOFAT
Dec.2005 Minister-Counsellor, Korean Embassy in the United States of America
Aug.2009 Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Jun.2010 Director-General, North American Affairs Bureau, MOFAT
Feb.2012 Visiting Fellow, University of Tokyo, Japan
Mar.2013 Secretary to the President for Foreign Affairs, Office of the President
Mar.2015 Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination, MOFA
Feb.2016 Deputy Minister for Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MOFAJan.
2017 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium
and Korean Mission to the European Union
Jan.2020 Ambassador for International Relations, Seoul Metropolitan Government
Jan.2021 Deputy National Security Advisor, Office of National Security
Jun.2022 Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Future Strategy, Seoul National
University (SNU)
Oct.2023 Visiting Fellow, Institute for Future Strategy, SNU / PhD student, National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and Visiting Fellow, Waseda University, Japan
AWARDS:
Dec.2013 Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, UK
Dec.2022 Order of Service Merit, Yellow Stripes, Republic of Korea

Kenneth Kang
Deputy Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Kenneth Kang is a Deputy Director in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department of the International Monetary Fund, covering issues related to global surveillance, trade, capital flows, macrofinancial policies, and digital money. Previously he worked in the Asia and Pacific and the European Departments, covering China, the Euro Area, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, and the Netherlands, and served as the IMF's Resident Representative in Korea during 2003-06. He has a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Yoji Koda
Former Commander in Chief, the Self Defense Fleet

Yoji Koda is Vice Admiral (Retired) of Japan Maritime Self Defense Force with surface warfare specialty. He is a graduate of National Defense Academy (NDA: 1972) and in 1991-1992 he was a student of Naval Command College at the U.S. Naval War College. After 40 years service in NDA and JMSDF, he served as Commander in Chief, Self Defense Fleet, from 2007 until his retirement in 2008. In 2009-11 Koda became a senior fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center, where he worked on the Chinese naval strategy.

Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture African Union Commission (AUC)

H.E. Madam Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, an Angolan national, is a leading African Agronomist. She was elected as the new Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission during the AU Summit of Head State on January 2017. Prior to that, She was a Special Adviser to two Ministers in Angola, her home country: the Angolan Minister of Environment where she also served as Ambassador responsible for Climate Change. In the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Angola Amb Sacko oversaw Food Security, Eradication of Hunger and Poverty Reduction. The former Secretary General of the Inter African Coffee Organization (IACO) for 13 years in Cote D'Ivoire where she represented Coffee economy for 25 African Coffee producing countries. During her tenure, she successfully advocated for the empowerment of small scale coffee farmers across the continent by setting up Regional Centres of Excellence for Capacity Building of Member States, on Genetic Material Conservation, Coffee Quality Improvement and Cup Tasting Liquor in Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, Cameroon and Zambia. Amb Sacko is one of the African Women Africa should be proud of, and she has built up her international profile and reputation by working with Regional, Global Institutional on Agriculture and many other sectors supported by World Trade Organization (WTO), African Union (AU), International Coffee Organization (ICO), African Development Bank (AFDB), African Bank for Export and Import (AFREXIMBANK), (FAO), UNECA, NEPAD etc. The other notable cooperation/partnerships she has worked with include the Regional Economic Communities (RECS), namely, SADC, COMESA, ECOWAS and EAC, where she has actively participated to address the challenges encountered by small scale farmers in Africa, ensuring that they remain a central focus in regional and national policy making for development. Amb Sacko became a Champion 12.3 on reducing food losses and waste in 2018 and in June 2019, she was nominated by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to serve as a member of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement Lead Group. Amb. Sacko speaks fluently Portuguese, French, English, Spanish and Lingala.

Fabrice Pothier
Chief Executive Officer, RASMUSSEN GLOBAL

Fabrice Pothier has 20 years of experience in strategic affairs and international public policy. As CEO, he has led Rasmussen Global to become a prime independent political consultancy in Europe. Mr. Pothier advises on a pro-bono basis Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team on issues related to security guarantees and international support. He co-founded the Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity bringing together leading figures from politics and technology including Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Michael Chertoff, Joe Biden, and Nick Clegg. Mr. Pothier served as NATO Director of Policy Planning from 2010 to 2016, for two successive Secretary Generals, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Jens Stoltenberg. While at NATO, he developed some of the
Alliance's most consequential initiatives such as the Readiness Action Plan and Smart Defence and played an active role in NATO's operation in Libya and response to the 2014/15 Ukraine war. Before his time at NATO, Pothier founded Carnegie Europe, part of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which became one of Europe's leading foreign policy think-tanks. Mr. Pothier is widely published and quoted in the international media, and regularly speaks on international affairs and security issues. As senior defence consulting fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, he writes on issues such as European politics, defence innovation and technology, and transatlantic relationships.
"Today, all large international companies should have a foreign service. And if they don't have one yet, they should call us" - Fabrice Pothier.

Ichiro Fujisaki
President, Nakasone Peace Institute; President, The America-Japan Society; Former Ambassador to the United States of America, Japan

Ichiro Fujisaki is President of the America-Japan Society, Inc. Born in 1947 and entered the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1969. He was the Ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2012, after serving as Director-General of the North American Affairs Bureau, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the Ambassador to the permanent mission of Japan to the international organizations in Geneva

Miles Rapoport
Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School

Miles Rapoport is the Executive Director of 100% Democracy: An Initiative for Universal Voting. He is also the co-author, with E.J. Dionne, of the book 100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting.  Miles served as President of Demos for 13 years, from 2001-2014, helping to lead the organization from a start-up to a strong and well-established progressive policy center. He served as an elected official for 14 years in the state of Connecticut, where he was a strong advocate for economic and racial justice and a fully inclusive democracy. He was a state legislator from 1985-1994, and then Secretary of the State from 1995-1998. From 2017-2022, He was Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center of the Harvard Kennedy School, He serves on the Boards of Everyday Democracy, Demos, The American Prospect, and the Scherman Foundation.

Yuji Miyamoto
Chairman, Miyamoto Institute of Asian Research, Former Director-General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs, MOFA, Former Ambassador to Myanmar,　Ambassador in charge of Okinawa, Former Ambassador to the People's Republic of China

Yuji Miyamoto is the chairman of the Miyamoto Institute of Asian Research. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as the Director of China Division, Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Consul General of Japan in Atlanta, Director-General of the Disarmament, Non-proliferation and Science Affairs Bureau, Ambassador to Myanmar, and Ambassador to China between 2006 and 2010.

Kanetsugu Mike
Chairman, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.

Mr. Kanetsugu "Sugu" Mike (pronounced Mee-kay) is the Chairman of MUFG.
Since joining MUFG in 1979, Mr. Mike has been instrumental in the development of the bank's global business with assignments in London, New York, and Thailand. He has also led various high-profile projects involving complex integration of the organization, including the merger of entities ultimately creating MUFG.
In 2011, Mr. Mike was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of Corporate Services, where he was responsible for the bank's information systems and operations. Following this assignment and the bank's investment in the fifth-largest bank in Thailand, in 2014, Mr. Mike was appointed Vice Chairman of the Bangkok-based Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) and played a key role in its successful integration with MUFG Bank's Bangkok branch.
In 2017, after serving as the Co-Chief Executive of Global Business Unit and Regional Executive for the Americas, Mr. Mike was appointed President and CEO of MUFG Bank.
In 2019, Mr. Mike was appointed President & Group CEO of MUFG, and a year later in 2020, he became the Deputy Chairman of MUFG.
In April 2021, he was appointed to his current position, the Chairman of MUFG.
Mr. Mike earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Keio University, Japan in 1979, and a Master of Business Administration from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA, in 1987.
Mr. Mike is an avid practitioner of Kendo, a type of Japanese martial arts.

Jong Won Lee
Professor, Faculty of International Research and Education Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University

LEE Jong Won is Professor of Korean Studies and International History at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University. His area of specialization includes politics and diplomacy in East Asia, with an emphasis on the Korean peninsula. Previously he taught at Tohoku University and Rikkyo University before he moved to Waseda University in 2012. He served for the ROK Presidential Advisory Committee on Policy Planning, and stayed at Princeton University and Peking University as visiting scholar. He holds a Ph. D. in international politics from the University of Tokyo. His book The Cold War in East Asia and Korea-U.S.-Japan Relations (Japanese) published by the Tokyo University Press in 1996, won the Ohira Masayoshi Memorial Award and the Best Foreign-language Book Prize of the Organization of American Historians.