Over the past 25 years, he held numerous economist and senior management positions at the World Bank, including strategy and operations director for Europe & Central Asia (2007-12), Maghreb department director (2002-07), strategy and operations director for Africa (2000-02), country director for Benin, Niger, and Togo (1996-2000), and lead economist in West and Central Africa (1994-96). He holds a Ph.D. in development economics from Tufts University, Fletcher School.

Previously, Abouyoub served as Morocco’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a member of parliament, and minister of foreign trade and investment. Notably, he developed and implemented the reform of Morocco’s trade policy and led the country’s accession to GATT. Furthermore, he has promoted the principle of trade liberalization throughout the Arab World in accordance with the rules and disciplines of the multilateral trade system. Abouyoub’s expertise in the fields of multilateral trade, trade agreements, regional integration, and trade policies is internationally recognized.

He was a press officer at the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Cultural Affairs, head of information at the Social and Economic Council (SER) and manager of the Communications and Publications Sector at Statistics Netherlands (CBS), before he became director of the FORUM Institute for Multicultural Development and director of the Social, Economic and Cultural Development Sector of the municipality of Amsterdam. In 2004, Aboutaleb was appointed to Amsterdam's municipal executive as alderman for work and income, education, youth, diversity and urban policy.

He was the secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs for the government of India, from 2001-2004. He has served as India’s high commissioner to Cyprus and ambassador to Syria, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. He was India’s deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka and consul general of India in San Francisco. His other diplomatic postings have been in Geneva, Brussels, Baghdad, and Rome. Since retirement from the diplomatic service, Abhyankar has been involved in academics, track II dialogues, philanthropy and consultancy.

Horowitt is also the co-founder of Global CONNECT, an innovation and ecosystem think tank based at the University of California, San Diego, that helped create the early frameworks around innovation ecosystems. Prior to CONNECT, Horowitt’s life was as an entrepreneur and investor, having been involved with a number of Silicon Valley startups and venture capital, including serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence for SK Global, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Hruby leads CEO-level delegations to Africa and has worked in more than 20 African markets. As a senior visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council, she speaks regularly on African business issues. She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of The Next Africa (July 2015, Macmillan). She earned a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s from Georgetown University.

She joined the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in 2003 as a staff member for the Expert Committee on Migration and Integration. Between 2007 and the fall of 2012, she served as head of several units in the integration department, including the unit “central issues of integration support.” In the fall of 2012, she was assigned the position of head of the office of the president of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and also served as head of the press unit.

He is an award-winning filmmaker, former commentator for National Public Radio (Sunday Morning Edition), and author of numerous articles on politics, popular culture and conflict. He has managed peacebuilding programs in numerous conflicts, including Bosnia, Iraq, Angola, Liberia, Macedonia, and Burundi and received the Capitol Area Peace Maker award from American University. He holds a doctorate from Oxford University and a bachelor's degree in political science from Johns Hopkins University.

She began her research/teaching career at CASS in 1989, and has served as a visiting scholar at Yale University, London University, the Nordic Africa Institute based in Sweden, German Development Institute, and the BRICS Policy Center of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. Wen is secretary general of the Chinese Asian & African Research Society, as well as standing member of the Research Society for African Problems and Asian–African Development & Exchange Society of China.

He has presented The Hub with Nik Gowing, BBC World Debates, Dateline London, plus provided location coverage of major global stories. For 18 years, he worked at ITN where he was bureau chief in Rome and Warsaw, and diplomatic editor for Channel Four News. He has been a member of the councils of Chatham House, the Royal United Services Institute, the Overseas Development Institute, the board of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and the advisory council at Wilton Park.