Speakers in 2022
Edith Aldewereld, born in 1974, co-founded WISF in December 2018. The vision of WISF is to create an inclusive sustainable economy that benefits our society, planet and economy at large. WISF is an international organisation that aims to transform the financial industry into a sustainable industry and leverages the high interest of women in sustainable finance by combining two powerful forces: feminine energy and capital.
Next to her work at WISF, Edith is a partner at Sonnenberg Wealth Management AG since July 2015, where she has created together with the Investment Team sustainable investment solutions next to the already existing classic solutions. In addition to her work at Sonnenberg she co-founded with the University of Zurich the course ‘Sustainable Investments in Wealth Management’. Since January 2019 she is also involved in ACATIS Fair Value Investment AG as a Sustainable Advisor.
She holds Advisory Board positions at Hintsa Performance, Transcendent Media Capital, InnoSource and is part of the founding group 100Women@Davos, a Community of Impact-Driven Women CEOs, Leaders and Changemakers. From 2001 to 2015, Edith Aldewereld served in various positions in asset management and private banking at ABN AMRO Bank (Switzerland) and later at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP Ltd) in Zurich. She started her career in 1996 as an investment advisor private banking at the ING Bank in the Netherlands until she moved to Switzerland in 2001.
Mrs. Aldewereld studied commercial economics at the School of Business Administration and Economics in Venlo and has earned a degree as Certified European Financial Analyst (CEFA) at the VU University in Amsterdam. She is fluent in Dutch, German and English.
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Colinne S. Bartel is the owner of Truffle Time, a subsidiary of AC Innovation GmbH. AC Innovation serves as a marketing and business development catalyst for entrepreneurs. As chief project manager, Ms. Bartel was responsible for capital expenditures and acquisition integration for an Advent International portfolio company that executed one of the fastest growing telecommunications buy & build projects in Europe.
After finalizing her MBA and a research trip in East Africa in 2002, Colinne joined McKinsey & Company. Ms. Bartel holds a B.A. in Political Science from University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A. in International Relations from the Claremont Graduate School and a dual MBA in Strategy and Finance from The Peter F. Drucker School of Management and the EDHEC Business School. Her passions are sports, the arts and cultural exchange.
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Sona Blessing is the author of „Alternative Alternatives: Risk, Returns and Investment Strategy“ – Wiley Finance, Feb. 2011. She is also a contributing author, in German, on real assets for „Alternative Investments: Analyse und Due Diligence” – NZZ Libro Dec. 2013; and has been a previewer of CAIA textbook chapters on real assets.
Prior to, Sona has been a moderator of Opalesque Podcasts her on start-up venture. She also served as the platform’s Director of Research and is accredited with solely conceiving, launching and authoring A SQUARE (Alternative Alternatives), the research portal.
Sona has served as a guest lecturer on ‘Alternative Alternatives’ at the Zurich School of Management and Law and also gained experience at Swiss banks in the roles of a hedge fund research strategist and a global market strategist.
She has extensive experience in business journalism in India, Indonesia, U.K, Taiwan and Switzerland.
She serves on the Global Advisory Council of 100 Women in Finance; whilst continuing in her role as the organisation’s ambassador in Switzerland.
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Evrard Bordier is chief executive officer of Bordier & Cie, Singapore. He has been managing partner of Bordier & Cie Group since 2011, and president of the board of Bordier Bank (TCI) since 2000. Prior to his current role in Singapore, he served as managing director of Bordier International in London for 10 years. Evrard has been in the financial industry for more than 20 years, during which he has garnered extensive international experience holding diverse positions in Singapore, Hong Kong, Geneva, Zurich, and London. Between 1997 and 2000, he served as chief of staff for the Financial Planning and Wealth Management Business Division of UBS in Zurich, overseeing all of its asset management business units across the world. Prior to that, he was a client adviser in the private banking department of Swiss Bank Corporation in Singapore where he covered the markets of Indonesia and Taiwan. He first moved to Asia in 1994 and joined Nomura International in Hong Kong as a broker. Evrard began his professional career as a lawyer at Lenz & Staehelin in Geneva, specialising in the banking and finance practice. Evrard is a direct descendant and fifth generation of the bank’s founding family, along with brothers Grégoire and Gaetan who are based in the Geneva headquarters. He is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, the Turks and Caicos Islands Bankers Association, the Financial Industry Association, and the Swiss Financial Planner Organisation.
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Asante Bradford is Senior Engagement Manager with the Center of Innovation for Digital Entertainment and Emerging Media for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the sales and marketing arm for the State of Georgia. His area of concentration with the Center of Innovation is to increase the impact of interactive entertainment for the State of Georgia as well as being a dedicated liaison to assist with promotions, logistics and business development for attracting digital media companies outside the state to relocate in Georgia.
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James co-founded CAASA in response to industry support for a Canadian alternatives association to serve all aspects including: hedge / alternative strategies; private lending; private real estate; private equity; plus emerging areas where Canada is a leader such as digital assets / blockchain and robo-advisors.
Prior to CAASA, James was the Chief Operating Officer of AIMA Canada where his team of three worked with 12 committees to produce 50-60 events per annum across Canada, organize 100+ committee meetings, and increase member numbers over his 7-year tenure from 66 to 164 corporate entities.
James also has experience in research and writing for the CAIA Association as well as serving on CAIA’s Exam Council and as a grader for the Level II portion of the exam. He also had roles in institutional sales and FoHF structuring in Seoul, South Korea, as a Product Manager at ICICI Wealth Management, and an Investment Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BBA (Finance).
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Andreas Degen has been part of the Anime & Japan fan culture since his early youth. After growing up with it, he wanted to give back to that thriving community and founded DoKomi with a few friends, which turned over the years into Germanys‘ largest Anime and Japan Expo. Born and raised in Germany, his educational background is in philosophy and real estate economics. He founded his first business with 19 years old and has been self employed ever since for the last 15 years. At this point he was able to turn his passion into a profession, which enabled him to stay focused on the development of the Anime & Japan community.
Founded in 2008, DoKomi grew into one of the key pillars of the German Anime & Japan pop culture fan community. With a focus on innovation DoKomi offers a platform for the diverse variety of related subcultures, such as cosplay, manga illustration artists, anime enthusiasts and many more. What started in a school in Düsseldorf, has since long migrated into the tradefair Düsseldorf and occupies several halls and the whole Congress Center there. Pre pandemic DoKomi attracted up to 55.000 visitors over two days, 750 artist booths and 150 commercial exhibitors.
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Valbona Dhjaku has been involved in the technology aspects of banking since 2001. Valbona joined the Credins Bank, the first private bank in Albania, in 2005 where she led the modernization and digitalization of the banks information systems and services.
Currently, Ms. Dhjaku is responsible for the infrastructure, information systems and the online channel for Credins Bank, the second largest bank in Albania.
Since more than 20 years, in addition to her professional career, Prof. Dhjaku teaches both Information Systems and Computer Science at the University of Tirana.
Prof. Valbona Dhjaku holds both a Ph.D and Master’s degree from the University of Tirana and speaks Albanian, English and Italian.
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Chris DiGiovanni earned his production stripes at MTV in the fast pace of New York City’s live action scene before moving west to join the then upstart CG house Pixar. He spent almost a decade at Pixar, which included 7 features, 3 as animation manager and 8 short films. His crews’ efforts yielded 22 Academy Award Nominations, 7 Oscars and 7 Golden Globes for Pixar.
After his career at Pixar, Chris returned home to New York where he was named Production Manager at Blue Sky Animation Studios, working with Steve Carell and Jim Carrey on Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who” (20th Century Fox). In 2008, Chris joined the team of Starz Animation in Toronto, to work along side Tim Burton on “9” (Focus Features), and Elton John on “Gnomeo and Juliet” (Touchstone). Chris reunited with Director Jimmy Hayward in 2011, as First Assistant Director on the 2013 release of “FREE BIRDS” (Relativity) at Reel FX Studios and went on to produce Golden Globe nominated “Book of Life” with Jorge R. Gutierrez, Guillermo Del Toro and Aron Warner.
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Established in 2006 by Michael Favelle, Odin’s Eye Entertainment (OEE) is a vertically integrated Production, Distribution and International Sales Agency that specializes in working with both emerging and established filmmakers across a wide variety of genres. As a Sales Agency, OEE represents Feature-Length Motion Pictures and Television content worldwide, hosting its own sales booth at every major festival including, but not limited to, CANNES, AFM, MIPCOM, BERLIN & FILMART. Sister company, Odin’s Eye Animation, creates and sources original animation content for developing and producing theatrical animation content for international sale.
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Sasha Havlicek is Co-Founder and CEO of ISD, having spearheaded ISD’s pioneering research and data analysis, digital education, policy advisory, training, tech and communications programmes. With a background in conflict resolution and an expertise in extremism, digital information operations and electoral interference, she has advised a range of governments at the highest levels and has spearheaded partnerships with the UN, EU Commission and Global Counter-Terrorism Forum. She has also worked with the private and civil society sectors to promote innovation, including developing major programmes run in partnership with Google, FB and Microsoft.
Sasha serves as an expert advisor to the UK Counter-Extremism Commission and the Mayor of London’s counter-extremism programme, and is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Sasha previously served as Senior Director at the EastWest Institute where she led conflict resolution programming. Sasha has testified before US Congress, the UK Parliament and is a regular commentator in the media (CNN, BBC, Channel 4 News and other networks).
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Susan D. Hyde is a Professor of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley, and the Avice M. Saint Chair in Public Policy. She studies international influences on domestic politics, teaches courses on international relations and comparative politics, and is active in promoting policy-relevant research.
She is an expert on international election observation, election fraud, and democracy promotion. Her research on election observation included serving on missions with several organizations in Afghanistan, Albania, Indonesia, Liberia, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Venezuela, and she has worked with the Carter Center, the National Democratic Institute, Democracy International, the International Republican Institute, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems on democracy promotion issues and researching how democracy promoting organizations can evaluate the effects of their work.
She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2006, was a professor at Yale University from 2006-2016, and held residential fellowships at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and Princeton University’s Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance. She was recognized with the Karl Deutch Award from the International Studies Association in 2018 and delivered the 2017 Linfield College commencement address, where she received her BA in 2000. From 2016-2018 she served a three year elected term as the Executive Director of the Evidence in Governance and Politics network. She currently serves on the editorial boards of International Organization, American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Experimental Political Science, and the Journal of Politics.
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Zachary Samuel Gottesman is currently researching the history of Korean animation and has published articles in Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, and Settler Colonial Studies and has presented research at conferences including Mechademia, The Association of Asian Studies Conference (AAS), and the World Congress of Korean Studies.
His current research is centered around three things: the relationship between Korean animation outsourcing for Japanese and American companies; the history of national development and the animation industry as part of Korea’s economic “miracle;” and the place of animation within the contemporary “Korean wave” of popular culture. Specifically, he is interested in the failure of Korean animation outsourcing to turn into an independent national industry and what the story of Korean animation’s failure says about the potential and limitations of outsourcing in globalized commodity production for every country and working population.
Zachary Samuel Gottesman has a Masters degree from Korea University in Korean Studies and does research in both English and Korean and is a PhD Candidate in East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
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Audun Wickstrand Iversen is a portfolio manager who covers multiple sectors searching for companies with a disruptive approach to existing business models.
Before rejoining us in 2019 he started several companies and sat as a board member, chairman, and CEO in unlisted and listed companies at Oslo Stock Exchange. In his previous career with us during 2001-2007 he was Portfolio Manager in several top-rated mutual funds. Before that, he was a top-ranked Financial Analyst in DNB Markets (1996-2001).
Audun has a four-year program in economics and business administration consisting of three years at the bachelor/undergraduate level and one year at the master level (Siviløkonom). He also holds a two-year degree in Strategy from Norges Handelshøyskole (NHH) and a Master of Art from the University of Oslo.
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Jackson Janes is senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and president emeritus of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, where he has been affiliated since 1989.
Dr. Janes has been engaged in German-American affairs in numerous capacities over many years. He has studied and taught in German universities in Freiburg, Giessen, and Tübingen. He was the director of the German-American Institute in Tübingen (1977-1980) and then directed the European office of The German Marshall Fund of the United States in Bonn (1980-1985). Before joining AICGS, he served as director of Program Development at the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh (1986-1988). He was also chair of the German Speaking Areas in Europe Program at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, DC, from 1999-2000 and president of the International Association for the Study of German Politics from 2005-2010.
Dr. Janes is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Atlantic Council of the United States. He serves on the advisory boards of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee, Beirat der Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (ZfAS), the Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association, and the American Bundestag Intern Network (ABIN) in Washington, DC. He is a member of the board of the German American Fulbright Commission and serves on the Selection Committee for the Bundeskanzler Fellowships for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is a member of the Cosmos Club in Washington DC.
Dr. Janes has lectured throughout Europe and the United States and has published extensively on issues dealing with Germany, German-American relations, and transatlantic affairs. In addition to regular commentary given to European and American news radio, he has appeared on CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, CBC, and is a frequent commentator on German television. Dr. Janes is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Education.
In 2005, Dr. Janes was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Germany’s highest civilian award.
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Courtesy of CAIA
Thomas H. Kjaergaard is an ESG pioneer and veteran who headed Danske Bank Group’s Responsible Investment programme from 2008-2017. After leaving Danske Bank Kjaergaard teamed up with Nordea Life & Pension Denmark in 2018, as Head of Investment Governance and ESG. The company that in 2018 spun out of the Nordea Group to become Velliv Pension, the third largest commercial pensions company in Denmark with appr. 350.000 customers and EUR 40 bn AuM.
Kjaergaard has been engaged in many UN PRI and IIGCC working groups, and founded Dansif in 2009 where he also served two terms as chairman of the board. He currently works as an investor and independent advisor to professional investors and as external lecturer at Copenhagen Business School. Finally, he is a columnist at Finans.dk, one of the largest business media outlets in Denmark.
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Sascha spend significant parts of his career investing and allocating capital across all Alternative Investment asset classes for a prominent family office, institutional investors and in his private capacity.
As part of his investment process, he specialized on due diligence working across the globe often working with translators and local experts.
In 2020, as part of a self-reflection emerging from the pandemic, Sascha shifted his focus on image and film making. He recently produced and directed a self-funded social justice documentary (short film, release 2022) in the aftermath of the Nagorno-Karabakh war of 2020 with an emphasis on border villages in Armenia.
Sascha holds an MBA from Bayes Business School and a LLM from King’s College, London. He is a Founding Member of the CAIA designation.
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Prof. Dr. Peter Lorange is founder, Chairman and CEO of the Lorange Network, where he is currently active in cutting edge, digital business knowledge transfer for business owners, entrepreneurial families and larger private investors. He was formerly owner and President of the Lorange Institute of Business. The Lorange Network was transferred to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in late 2021.
Prof. Dr. Lorange is a successful entrepreneur and owner of a highly diversified family office, S. Ugelsatd Invest, after having sold his shipping company in 2006. He
is also regarded as one of the world’s foremost business school academics. For 15 years, Lorange was the President of IMD, Lausanne, one of Europe’s leading business schools. He was Professor of Strategy at IMD and held the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair of International Shipping. In recognition of Peter Lorange’s incredible achievements, he has been named IMD Honorary President. Additionally, IMD is establishing a Peter Lorange Chair, with the purpose of pursuing IMD’s global
legacy in supporting entrepreneurial families.
In addition to his academic background, he has gained extensive shipping know-how as director on several shipping company boards (Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines,
Kvaerner, Seaspan). He also has board experience from ISS, Keystone Solutions(Oslo), Globalpraxis, Copenhagen Business School and many others.
Lorange was educated at the Norwegian School of Economics, Yale University (MA in Operations Management) and Harvard Business School (DBA). In addition, he is the recipient of 6 honorary doctorates. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Lorange has written or edited over twenty books and more than 120 articles. His areas of special interest are global strategic management, strategic planning and entrepreneurship for growth. He has conducted extensive research on multinational management, strategic planning processes, and internally generated growth processes.
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Eliézer leads the research department at 21Shares, a $2 billion digital asset management firm. He provides insights into crypto markets and patterns associated with the global economy and geopolitics. His research is often featured in Bloomberg, Business Insider, and other leading news outlets to build crypto products and tokens ahead of market trends and help financial institutions, journalists, regulators, and the community navigate the cryptoasset industry. Experienced as a Venture Capital Associate in New York investing in seed and early-stage companies, including a billion-dollar Fintech startup, Eliézer’s experience in crypto started in 2014. He obtained his master’s degree in International Business and wrote his master’s thesis on how the Bitcoin network could improve financial inclusion in developing economies.
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Heiko Nemmert has over 20 years of experience in the media industry. He co-managed several studios in past years and helped produce TV programs and films for international audiences, the German public-service television broadcasters, and the RTL Group. He gained valuable knowledge in the online sector during his early career days, producing content for Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, and Motorola.
In the past five years, Heiko Nemmert, with four partners, founded the international entertainment studio Baby Giant Hollyberg. As its CEO, he is also responsible for overseeing the studio’s foreign affairs and co-managing its North-American business. On the content side,
Heiko is used to guide the process in all production stages, from development to financing, managing productions, and handling distribution. As a speaker, panelist, and consultant, he helps audiences understand markets, financing, the power of storytelling, and current and future media technologies.
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Xavier Pierluca is an investment professional with 25 years’ experience, 18 of which are in the field of impact investing managing both private equity and debt funds. He has structured and raised several funds in access to energy, microfinance, fintech, SME finance, and healthcare for over USD 700 mn with family offices, DFIs and Institutional Investors through plain vanilla and blended finance structures.
Prior to launching Enabling Qapital, he was a founding Partner at SIMA where he structured, raised and is managed one of the largest solar off-grid solar debt fund. He also engages in Corporate Finance Advisory and has led the valuation and fundraising of one of the largest global microfinance group.
Xavier holds a Masters in Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a BsBA from Northeastern University. He is fluent in French, Spanish, and proficient in Romanian and Italian.
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Lisa Sennhauser-Kelly is an experienced corporate leader in a career spanning 3 decades and 3 continents. Now an advisor to corporate as well as FinTech startups, Lisa has previously enjoyed a career as a senior finance professional in Australia, Europe, and North America. She has a proven ability to influence and impact, across complex global organizations. As a result Lisa was promoted to both Executive Director as well as Managing Director in UBS, and later became CFO of a spin-off from UBS, Equatex Global financial services now a part of ComputerShare.
An Aussie, Lisa lives with her Swiss husband and two children in Zurich and is passionate about growing individuals and their organizations. In addition to her financial expertise, Lisa is an accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by the International Coach Federation, an EMCC Accredited Coach at Senior Practitioner level, and a Marshall Goldsmith Certified Stakeholder Centred Coach.
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Jackie is a proud band member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. Her childhood was filled with adventure in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, followed by a few years 400 km south of the Arctic Circle, in Yellowknife N.W.T., before finally moving to Vancouver B.C.. Jackie began her animation career at Mainframe Entertainment working in TV and Direct to DVD movies. She then took the leap into feature film. Her early film credits include „Night At The Museum“, and „Happily N’Ever After“ before she packed up and moved across the continent to New York, joining Blue Sky Studios in 2005. Jackie went on to animate 10 feature films with Blue Sky including the“ Ice Age“ franchises, „Horton Hears a Who!“,“ Rio 1″, „Rio 2“, „Epic“, „Ferdinand“, and „Spies and Disguise“. After Blue Sky Jackie worked with Illumination Mac Guff in Paris on an untitled film, and then shifted to Double Negative in Montreal where she is currently a Lead Animator on an unannounced film.
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As executive vice president of creative for Sony Pictures Animation, Karen Toliver is responsible for the creative supervision of a number of upcoming features for the studio, from inception to script, and through production.
In her role, Toliver is also in charge of recruiting key storytelling talent, and discovering and acquiring new creative material and intellectual property aligned with Sony Pictures Animation’s vision including original concepts, books, comics, video games, shorts, websites, and toys.
Toliver is also the producer of the Academy Award®-winning animated short film, „Hair Love,“ directed by Matthew A. Cherry.
Toliver has extensive experience in production and development, including 10 years at Fox Animation where she supervised the production of the “Rio” film franchise and the latest three films in the “Ice Age” series, which grossed a combined $3.1 billion at the worldwide box office. Toliver also spearheaded the original feature “Ferdinand,” which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature.
Toliver served as a production executive at Walt Disney Animation Studios on films such as “Brother Bear,” “Chicken Little,” and “Meet the Robinsons.”
Toliver began her career as an assistant at Walt Disney Pictures working on the “Mighty Ducks” franchise.
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Thomas B. Smith is founding director of UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research, founding co-executive director of the Congo Basin Institute, and is a distinguished professor in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Smith has more than 35 years of experience working in tropical rainforests. A central focus of his research investigates how biodiversity is generated and maintained in tropical rainforests and the results of Smith’s research point to new and more effective ways of prioritizing regions for conservation. In 2015, he led the effort to create the Congo Basin Institute (CBI), a unique partnership between the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture and UCLA. CBI is UCLA’s first foreign affiliate and serves as a regional nexus for interdisciplinary research, education, and training focused on finding solutions to the critical issues facing Africa’s Congo Basin, including those related to climate change, water and food security, biodiversity conservation, and human health. Smith has published over 230 papers, received more than a dozen honors, and served on the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration for 12 years.
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Jay Tucker is a marketer, educator, and technology leader with over 20 years of experience in the technology, academic and entertainment sectors. At UCLA’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment and Sports (MEMES), Jay is responsible for the Center’s vision, thought leadership, educational offerings and major events – including the annual PULSE conference. In this role, Jay has forged powerful partnerships with Hollywood studios, technology innovators, and executives from the sports and music industries in order to identify the trends and opportunities that will shape the industry. Most recently, Jay has launched a partnership with Real Madrid University (created by Real Madrid C.F. and Universidad Europea de Madrid) to deliver jointly produced educational programs for senior executives and rising leaders.
Jay has also worked to connect underserved communities to career pathways in technology and entertainment. He advises a number of non-profit organizations focused on skills and leadership development, and launched a partnership with Howard University that provides fellowships for students interested in participating in the MEMES Summer Institutes – a series of courses focused on the business of entertainment. Jay is also passionate about helping executives and entrepreneurs embrace disruption, drive innovation, and build powerful solutions. He founded Silicon Beach @ USC, a two-day event featuring a venture competition and a conference focused on innovation, investment, and new ventures related to technology and digital content. He also serves as an advisor to Versus Systems and The Hollywood Post and actively supports the Silicon Beach community in Southern California.
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Joshua W. Walker, PhD became President & CEO of Japan Society in December 2019. Previously, he worked at Eurasia Group, the world’s leading political risk analysis firm, where he served as global head of strategic initiatives and Japan in the Office of the President. Prior to that, he was CEO and president of the USA Pavilion of the 2017 World Expo in Astana, Kazakhstan; founding dean of the APCO Institute; and senior vice president of global programs at APCO Worldwide, a leading global strategic communications firm based in Washington, D.C. Before joining the private sector, he worked in numerous roles at various U.S. government agencies, including the State Department and the Defense Department. He is Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and professor of Leadership and the American presidency at George Mason University and the Reagan Foundation. He was also Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and co-founded the Yale Journal of International Affairs. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond, a master’s degree from Yale University, and a doctorate from Princeton University. Dr. Walker grew up in Japan where his parents still serve as missionaries, came to the United States when he was 18, and is bicultural and bilingual
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Dr. Karina L. Walters (MSW, Ph.D) is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is a Katherine Hall Chambers University Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work, an adjunct Professor in the Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, and the Co-Director of the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI) at the University of Washington. Dr. Walters has over 25 years of experience in social epidemiological research on the social determinants of Native American and Two-Spirit health well as expertise in designing culturally derived chronic disease prevention studies (substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, obesity, and diabetes prevention). She has written landmark papers in the field of traumatic stress and health, historical and intergenerational trauma, and developed the Indigenist Stress-Coping model.
Methodologically, she has expertise in Indigenist methodologies and in designing community and land-based, culturally derived interventions. Dr. Walters has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on over 34 NIH studies (22 as PI) from diverse NIH institutes. Dr. Walters received her B.A. (sociology) in 1987, her M.S.W. in 1990, and her Ph.D. in 1995 from the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to UW, Dr. Walters served on faculty at Columbia University School of Social Work (1995-2001).
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Jan Martin Witte is Director of the Global Equity and Funds department of KfW Development Bank. As such, he oversees the Bank´s impact investment portfolio globally, with equity investments across ~60 funds and ~25 financial institutions, and a total investment volume exceeding EUR 3 billion in climate finance, SME funding, capital market development and biodiversity protection.
Prior to his current appointment, Jan served in different roles at KfW Development Bank, including as Director of the Central Africa and Regional Funds department; as Director of the Pretoria Office in South Africa; as Head of Division for Infrastructure in Southern Africa); as well as Senior Project Manager for Energy in East Africa (based in Kampala, Uganda). Before joining KfW in 2009, Jan Martin was co-founder and Associate Director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, Germany. Jan Martin has published widely on issues of energy policy, international development, UN reform, global governance, and transatlantic relations.
Jan Martin holds a PhD and MA in international relations and international economics from the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University.
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Mr. Yamadera has been serving the Secretariat of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) of ASEAN+3 since 2014.
He has vast experiences in capital market development, payment systems, fintech, cybersecurity, and regional financial cooperation.
Currently, he leads the ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum (ABMF), a common platform to foster standardization and harmonization of the bond markets. He also leads the Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF) to create cross-border linkages among the central banks and central securities depositories.
Mr. Yamadera has over 25 years of professional experience in central banking including research, banking supervision, and financial cooperation at the Bank of Japan.
Mr. Yamadera obtained his BA in Law, Keio University, Japan; M.Sc in Public Administration and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom; and M.Sc in Systems Management from Tsukuba University, Japan.
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A well-known figure in the media and entertainment industry, Bruno heads the content distribution
arm of Toonz. With over 20 years of experience in the industry at the senior management level,
Bruno has expertise in entertainment production and broadcast. His portfolio includes some very
impressive credits, including international hits like Masha and the Bear, Zafari, and Naruto. Before
joining Toonz, Bruno held the position of CEO at London-based Nucleus Media Rights. Before that,
he has also held senior positions such as Senior Vice President – media at Ink Group and Senior
Manager – Distribution Acquisitions & Co-productions at Panini Media.
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