Jessica Gottsleben (a surname that means « God-life » in German) brings to the fore a large array of different skills and interests. She is an American policy advisor and strategist, security scholar and researcher, human and civil rights advocate, consultant, and  “survivor expert”. The latter expression may be unclear to some, but represents a pillar in her professional journey, as she will explain later.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he has launched his own enterprise, called New Blueprints, end of 2020. The demand is high for his talents of keynote speaker, coming from a variety of customers. “I am a generalist and my missions vary from advising on projects for European institutions to giving keynotes for multinationals or workshops to international think tanks”, Youssef Kobo explains.

This 36 year old political analyst for DW News, the global news channel of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and founder of CoStruct, a consulting firm, has an impressive record. Not of the least is her TEDx Talk about the transatlantic democracy crisis. « My career and life have been quite global, she says. I work with organisations from across the world and across the public and private sectors ».

He contributes to the study of public policy frameworks for “purpose-driven companies”, to understand “how these businesses can thrive, having a solid economic return and positive social and environnemental impact, in line with the SDGs”. The project covers 12 Ibero-American countries, 5 international jurisdictions and key topics such as model legislation, impact measurement, tax incentives, sustainable public procurement, and gender equality.

Since 2017, she is the Head of Women Peace and Security Institute at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) in Accra. The West African institution has trained since 2004 thousands of civilians, police and military staff from all over Africa and beyond. Its goal: “sustain a peaceful atmosphere in Africa”, as Joana sums it up.

In December 2019 in Marrakesh, Edna was already explaining how she was looking to raise the visibility of Africa in Latin America, “two continents that are related but don’t know each other”. At the same time, she was working to raise awareness and change the narrative and perceptions on the aesthetics of Black women: “Because they are beautiful too, even if it’s not according to the European standards”.

This is far from being her only activity. In March 2020, she co-founded the Health and Information Literacy Access (HILA) Alliance. Her organisation is in contact with key groups around the world including the WHO and UNESCO, developing strategies and programs to address infodemics, including disinformation on COVID-19.

Richard Seshie was born and raised in Abidjan, the capital city of Ivory Coast. His childhood dream was all about strategy. “I wanted to enroll in the army, but this was just a dream and I don’t really have the physical abilities. Later on, I discovered that many of my projects imply strategic thinking”.