Expert in international trade issues with 20 years of experience, Arancha González serves as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC), the joint development agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation, since September 2013. Before joining ITC, Ms. González served as Chief of Staff to World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy from 2005 to 2013. During her tenure at the WTO, she played an active role in launching the Aid for Trade initiative and served as Mr. Lamy’s representative (Sherpa) at the G-20. Prior to working at the WTO, Ms. González held several positions at the European Commission. Between 2002 and 2004, she was the European Commission spokeswoman for trade and adviser to the European Union Trade Commissioner. Ms. González holds a degree in law from the University of Navarra and a postgraduate degree in European Law from the University of Carlos III, Madrid. She co-chairs the World Economic Forum (WEF) Agenda Council on the Future of Trade and Investment.

Prof. Oramah has been President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank since September 2015. Prior to this, he was Executive Vice President responsible for Business Development & Corporate Banking (October 2008 – September 2015). He also supervised the Research and Strategy functions of the Bank. He holds an Advanced Management Certificate from Columbia University, M.Sc. and Ph.D. Degrees in Agricultural Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University, and a B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ibadan. Prof. Oramah currently serves on the Practitioner Advisory Board of the Institute for Trade and Innovation (IfTI) of Offenburg University, Gengenbach, Germany. He is also a Member of the Emerging Markets Advisory Council of the Institute of International Finance; an Executive Committee Member of the Factors Chain International (FCI); a member of the Consultative Board on the World Cocoa Economy of the International Cocoa Organization (ICCO); and a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of African Trade (JAT). Professor Oramah has won several awards, including the Afreximbank Outstanding Staff Award (2010); the 2017 Banker of the Year Award of the African Banker and the Africa House Leadership Award of the New York University (2018).

Daniel Balaban is Economist, MBA in Finance, Specialist in Public Budget and Master in International Relations. Since August 2011 he is the Director of the World Food Program Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil. Balaban acted for over ten years in the areas of finance and planning in business consulting firms and foundations of welfare facilities. In 1994 he became Finance Analyst of the Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, having served as Economic Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury and National Coordinator for Economic Studies of the Secretariat of National Treasury. In 2003 he served as Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Economic and Social Development of the Brazil’s Presidency of the Republic.

Dr. Frannie Léautier is an African finance and development expert, with long-standing global experience leading and transforming organizations in the private, public and non-for-profit spheres. Prior to joining TDB, she served as Senior Vice President at the African Development Bank, Vice President at the World Bank Group, and Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation. In additional to have founded two companies, Dr. Léautier is a Board Member, Trustee, Special Advisor, Founder and Member of a number of prestigious international organizations, including the World Economic Forum (WEF), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), OCP Group, African Risk Capacity (ARC), African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Institute for Security Studies (IIS), King Boudouin Foundation USA (KBFUS), Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and Technology (NM-AIST), and others. Likewise, she is a well-recognized author and academic, having published numerous books, articles, and papers in international development and having taught Master-level courses at Sciences Po, MIT, Harvard, Duke, and the University of Tokyo. In additional to her Civil Engineering Degree from Dar es Salaam University and a Transportation Masters from MIT, Dr. Léautier holds a Ph.D. in Infrastructure Systems from MIT and honorary degrees from North Central College and Lancaster University.

H.E. Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki of the Republic of Niger is the Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) Agency. He was appointed to the position in January 2009. A former Prime Minister of Niger, from 1997 to 2000, Dr. Mayaki has a Master' degree from the National School of Public Administration (Enap), Quebec, Canada and a PhD in Administrative Sciences from the University of Paris I, France. He worked as a Professor of Public Administration in Niger and Venezuela. From 1996 to 1997 he was appointed Minister in charge of African Integration and Cooperation and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Niger. In August 2000, he set up the Analysis Centre for Public Policy in Senegal. From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Mayaki was a guest Professor at the University of Paris XI, where he lectured on international relations. He also led research at the Research Centre on Europe and the Contemporary World within that university. In 2004, he served as Executive Director of the Platform in support of Rural Development in West and Central Africa, the Rural Hub, based in Dakar, Senegal.

Founder and current President of Brazil Africa Institute, he holds a PhD in Education from the Federal University of Ceará and Postdoctoral studies from the University of Brasilia (UNB), with the object of research on the integration of the African continent. He is a visiting professor of important Brazilian and African Universities and he is a Senior International Associate of African, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center - CALACs of Jindal Global University (India). Prof. João Bosco is author of books and publications related to the relations between the various international actors, focusing on the South South Cooperation. He act as an international consultant of Brazilian and foreign organizations and as a columnist and commentator of important media in Brazil.

Since October 2015, Mr. Jorge Chediek has been the Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, leading United Nations system-wide promotion and coordination of South-South cooperation for development. In March 2016, Mr. Chediek was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as his Envoy on South-South Cooperation. Prior to this, Mr. Chediek served as the UN Resident Coordinator/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Brazil (2010-2015). Preceding his United Nations career, which began in 1990, Mr. Chediek worked at the Department of Legislative Analysis of the Argentinean Congress and as an independent consultant assisting in the design of financial investment systems in Argentina. Born in 1960, he holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (honors) from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor of Science (“Licenciado”) in Political Science from Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

With 25 years of international investment banking, having focused on African markets for the past 8 years, Natália Dias is CEO of Standard Bank Brazil since 2018 and Head of Power & Infra-structure for LATAM since 2012. Prior to Standard Bank, she has occupied different senior positions in leading global financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America Merril Lynch and ING Bank. Has an extensive track record in local and international Debt Capital Markets & Syndications, having coordinated for 5 years the Real Estate Mortgages Securities Committee at the Brazilian National Association of Investment Banks. Natalia holds an Honors Degree in Public Administration from Fundação Getulio Vargas and specialization in Finance by the Amsterdam Institute of Finance.

Omar is the Group Publisher and Managing Director of one of Africa’s leading media and communications groups, IC Publications. IC Publications is committed to serving the interests of Africa, and that is the ethos that drives all of the group's activities. The group publishes amongst other New African and African Business magazines. It also organizes a number of Africa focused events. Omar's work and personal interests include media, development economics, leadership, and education. He sits on the board of the Africa Media Initiative and Brand Africa. Omar studied Economics and Modern Languages at Durham University and has qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant.

Paulo Gomes is a global business leader, active environmentalist and a key political actor in Guinea Bissau. He has founded Paulo Gomes and Partners, a strategic advisory and investment firm focused on a high level limited set and sectors of clients with advice and tailored made solutions, a natural outcome of years advising governments and businesses on strategic investments as well as years on serving on boards ofvfirms such as AFIG, Asky Airlines and Ecobank. Founder of the South East Asia-Africa Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Advisory Board his business reach touched all continents and interests, Paulo is also a senior advisor to PIL Group.

Graduated in Law from the University of São Paulo; President of the Brazilian Association of Producers Exporting Fruit and Vegetables (Abrafrutas); Founding partner and Director of Agrícola Famosa; President of the Sectoral Chamber of the Productive Chain of Fruit Growing of the Ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Supply of Brazil and President of COEX - Executive Committee for Monitoring Fruit Fly.

Simeon Ehui was appointed Director of the World Bank’s Food and Agriculture Global Practice in September 2017. He oversees the strategic direction and high-quality delivery of the Agriculture Global Practice work program with a focus on Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Since joining the World Bank in 2003, Dr. Ehui has held several assignments. He was manager of the Food and Agriculture Global Practice for Africa (2015-2017) and South Asia (2009-2015) while based in Pakistan. He also served as Lead Economist and Sector Leader for the Sustainable Development Network in Nigeria covering a variety of issues such as agriculture, social, environment, transport and energy. Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Ehui worked for 15 years in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). He managed multi-country agricultural research development programs in Africa and Asia for both the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Dr. Ehui holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and has published extensively in his field. He is an honorary fellow of the African Agricultural Economist Association, and a Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus of Purdue University.

Stephen Yeboah is the co-founder of Commodity Monitor, a tech-based business that uses data analytics to generate an exchange of information on sustainable production, supply and consumption of commodities in Africa, including mining, oil, and gas. Stephen has twice in a row been selected as LinkedIn Top Voice on ‘Economy and Finance’ and Philanthropy and Global Development for 2017 and 2018 respectively. He has more than eight years of experience in research and policy analysis in Africa’s extractive sector, agriculture, energy, climate and was a Research Fellow at the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a non-profit chaired by the late former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, from September 2013 to July 2016. He has published more than 100 articles and holds a Master in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), Geneva, Switzerland. He is currently undertaking a doctoral study at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP), University of Lausanne, Switzerland, researching on the politics, institutions of mining and the outcomes on Ghana’s development.

Born in Cairo on 01.12.1972, he is graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the Federal University of Cairo and then specialized in Foreign Trade at the University of Marseille in France. He has lived in Brazil for 15 years. He was an executive at Lorea'l in France, Al Islami in the United Arab Emirates, and in Brazil, he held executive positions at Fambras Halal and JBS. He currently holds the position of Secretary General at the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce where he has been working since 2011.