Professor Chris Alden is Professor in International Relations, LSE; Co-director of LSE Global South Unit; research associate and a former Programme Head, Global Powers and Africa, South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA). He has contributed to research, conferences and publications on the South African foreign policy since 1991, the changing role of China and Africa since 1992 and China and Latin America since 2007.
Maria Benjumea is Founder and CEO of Spain Startup and organizer of South Summit, the leading platform in innovation and business development that brings together in Madrid the key players of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and that in just four years has become the leading innovation meeting place with 12,500 attendees from more than 100 nationalities, 650 investors with an investment portfolio of $34M and more than $1B raised by their finalist startups.
Professor Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. In addition, he is currently working on a history of LSE. Professor Cox has held appointments at: The Queen's University of Belfast (1972-1995), California State University at San Diego (1986), The College of William and Mary in Virginia (1987-1989), The Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth (1995-2001), The Catholic University of Milan (2003-2008), The University of Melbourne (2004-2005), and The Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies in Canberra, Australia (2004-2008). He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre in 2004 and expand it into IDEAS, a foreign policy centre based at the LSE which aims to bring the academic and policy words together, in 2008.
Isabel Hilton is a London based writer and broadcaster, and founder and CEO of www.chinadialogue.net, an innovative, fully bilingual Chinese English website devoted to building a shared approach on climate change and environmental issues with China. Based in London, chinadialogue launched in 2006 and is a unique, independent source of information on environmental and climate issues, widely read in China and in more than 200 countries around the world.
Professor Paul Kelly is LSE Pro‐Director for Education with special reference to East Asia. He is also Professor on Political Theory in the Government Department. He has a PhD from the University of London where he studied at both LSE and UCL and has held posts at the University of Chicago, University of Michigan and University of Wales, Swansea before returning to LSE in 1995. He is author and editor of fourteen books. His research is in the field of British political theory and politics and he speaks on issues of current British politics and its global impact.
Dr. Patricia Majluf, Peruvian, is the Vice President for Peru of Oceana, the largest international NGO fully dedicated to protecting the global oceans. For the last three decades she has almost singly led marine conservation efforts in Peru, successfully promoting the establishment of marine protected areas and developing public awareness of the large-scale ecosystemic and socio-economic impacts of the massive industrial anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) fisheries.
Dr Alvaro Mendez is Co-Director of the Global South Unit at the LSE, where he is also Senior Research Fellow in the International Relations Department. He is also a Research Associate at the University of Bristol, and a former editor of Millennium-Journal of International Studies at the LSE. He currently lectures at the LSE on two courses – China and the Global South and Foreign Policy Analysis. The Department of International Relations at LSE awarded him its 2003-2004 Teaching Prize. Dr. Mendez lectures at the University of Shanghai, the Singapore Institute of Management, Universidad Torcuato di Tella (Argentina), Universidad del Pacifico (Peru), and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.
Dr Irene Mia is the Global Editorial Director at the Economist Intelligence Unit's Thought Leadership division. She develops and oversees large global client relationships from an editorial perspective, and plays a key role in disseminating and presenting The Economist Group's views and work around the world. Previously, she was regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), where she provided intellectual and strategic leadership to the regional editorial team in the EIU's Country Analysis division.
Wim Naudé is Professor in the Department of Organization and Strategy at Maastricht University and the Dean of the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. He is also a Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT and on the board of the CERES Research School for International Development at Utrecht University. Previously he has been Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER in Finland, and Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Oxford. Broadly, his scholarly work is concerned with technology and geography in the process of development, and the relationship of these with entrepreneurship as occupational choice.
Oliver Sartor is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), based in Paris. He has published numerous academic and policy research papers on energy transitions, climate and energy governance, industrial decarbonisation pathways, power sector decarbonisation, renewable energy support policies and carbon markets.
Alberto Vollmer is the CEO of The Santa Teresa Rum Company, a Venezuelan family business established in 1796, dedicated to producing premium aged rum. Mr. Vollmer became CEO after rescuing and turning around the company that had spiraled into “Chapter 11” in 1999. At the same time, President Chavez rose to power triggering economic, political, and social turmoil. Since then, Alberto and his team have learned to manage land invasions, expropriations, slum interventions, gang wars, prison inmates, all the while remaining committed to producing the best crafted best rum in the world. Alberto is a civil engineer by training and a founding member of Optimists Anonymous.
Lionel Zinsou is Managing Partner et co-founder of SouthBridge, Co-Chairman of AfricaFrance, and Chairman of Terra Nova. He is the former Prime Minister of Benin (2015-2016). He trained as historian and economist at University of Paris, École Normale Supérieure Paris, Sciences Po Paris, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.