He is in his fifth term as an economic advisor to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office.  He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard University, and has been the recipient of fellowships and major research grants from the European Commission, the Ford Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Portas taught history of political thought from 1996-99, and founded a university opinion poll center. In 2016 he became president of the International Strategic Council — Mota-Engil Group, with a focus in Africa and Latin America. He is also a member of the international board of Pemex gas (Mexico), and was elected deputy chairman of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in 2016. Portas is a founding partner of Vinciamo Consulting and author of an international politics TV weekly program.  Portas graduated with a law degree from the Portuguese Catholic University.

Prior to joining the Atlantic Council in 2011, Pham was a tenured associate professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he was director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He is the author of more than 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books, including Somalia: Fixing Africa’s Most Failed State (coauthored with Greg Mills and David Kilcullen).

Prior to that, he worked in various positions for the World Bank in Washington, DC, Tokyo, and Southern Africa. He also served as chief economist for the Brazilian Ministry of Budget and Planning, and as Brazil’s deputy finance minister in charge of international affairs.

Parraga and his team use art to transform marginalized neighborhoods into cultural hubs. Due to its contribution to social inclusion management in today’s cities, BogotArt was recognized during the UN-Habitat 2014 World Cities Days as an important organization which brings youth perspectives to the spotlight.

She engaged actively in Greek politics regarding public sector reform and reduction of informality. Panaritis, along the lines of “triple-bottom-line” model of social entrepreneurship, founded Panel Group, a specialized advisory group that provides counsel and technical expertise in transforming informality (illiquid real assets).

He has worked in many public administrations as a financial expert. He also integrated the customs office between 1996 and 1998 and was appointed chairman of the Banques Populaires Groupes in early 2001. Omary was the general secretary of the ministry of finance.

She was also appointed on the Technical Committee for the 2016 Guangzhou Award for Urban Innovation. In 2016, Ochugboju was honored by the Wings World Quest Foundation, with the Women of Discovery Humanity Award. Ochugboju is a TED Fellow, co-curator of TEDxNairobi, and co-founder of the stock photography website Africaknows.com which aims “to tell a different story about Africa.”

At that point, he retired from the military to farm and also become a fellow at the University of Ibadan’s Institute of African Studies, but following two decades of corrupt political leadership, Obasanjo presented himself as a candidate for president, and was elected in March 1999. Since leaving office for a second time in 2007, he has served as special envoy to the United Nations Secretary General on Democratic Republic of Congo and Great Lakes Region (2008-09) and headed a delegation of African Union observers during the most recent election in Zimbabwe (2013).

He was previously with UNITEL, the largest mobile phone Angolan operator, where he had a number of leadership roles in developing the company’s network, including access (2G and 3G), core (monolithic and softswitch) and transmission (microwave and fibre optics), as well as the infrastructure associated with them. He was also involved in the development of UNITEL’s value-added services.