Azizullah "Aziz" Royesh

Azizullah "Aziz" Royesh is a leading advocate for equal access to primary and secondary education and Founder of Marefat High School for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. With a focus on critical thinking and human rights, the school flourished and eventually moved to Afghanistan in 2002, where it now teaches more than 3500 Afghan students, about half of whom are girls. Marefat High School has become a highly respected and well-known model for a new approach to community-building in Afghanistan. Aziz has written textbooks on humanism, human rights, democracy, social studies, and Quranic interpretation and is a frequent speaker on the concept of a tolerant community. Aziz and his colleagues established…

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Eliot Abel

Eliot Abel leads commercial sales & project development at NamastĂ© Solar, a solar energy company based in Colorado, guiding the development of solar projects ranging from 100kW to 10MW. Prior to joining NamastĂ© Solar, Eliot was Founder and Principal of Abel Clean Energy Advisors, a consulting firm that helps commercial property owners and developers utilize innovative financing, such as C-PACE, to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions that increase value, reduce operating costs, and enhance the sustainability of their properties. Earlier in his career, Eliot worked in business development roles at a UK-based thin film solar startup, GE’s global Renewable Energy business, and San Diego-based Renovate America. Eliot serves…

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Ricardo Terán

Ricardo Terán is a serial entrepreneur who believes in the power of business to change the world. He helps accelerate the growth of small- and medium-sized companies, advising them on business-model strategy, partnership and business development, team building, and venture funding. He is currently Director of Business Development for Avanti Way, one of the fastest growing and most disruptive real estate ecosystems in Florida. Ricardo is also Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Agora Partnerships, a non-profit social enterprise that provides access to investment capital, strategic consulting, and a global community of support to entrepreneurs looking to solve the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. He also co-founded…

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Fares Mabrouk

Fares Mabrouk is Country Director and Fund Manager for Yunus Social Business (YSB) in Tunisia. Founded and led by Professor Muhammad Yunus, YSB helps create social businesses around the world by setting up incubator funds and providing services to companies, governments, foundations, and NGOs. Previously, Fares founded a number of for-profit and nonprofit organizations in North Africa focused on mobile banking and oil logistics. He is a co-founder of and advisor to HuffingtonPost Maghreb, a French language edition of the Huffington Post covering Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Fares has degrees from Pierre and Marie Curie University, ENSAE Paris, and Havard's Kennedy School of Government.

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Marvin Rees

Marvin Rees was elected Mayor of Bristol in the United Kingdom in May 2016. As Mayor he sits as one of the leaders of the UK Core Cities and on the Steering Committee of the Global Parliament of Mayors. He is a popular public speaker on issues of race, class, faith, and social mobility. Marvin worked previously in public health as a BBC broadcast journalist and radio presenter and for the international development agency, Tearfund. In 2012 Marvin founded the The City Leadership Programme, a Yale World Fellows-inspired program which targets and equips high ability, high aspiration young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds for national and global leadership. He is…

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Wolfgang Proissl

Wolfgang Proissl is a journalist and Head of Communications and Chief Spokesperson for the European Stability Mechanism, an international organization founded by the 17 Euro-area member states whose purpose is to provide financial assistance to member countries in difficulty. Previously, he reported and wrote on monetary policy, international finance, and the financial crisis for the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD). As a journalist, he worked to promote European integration and was responsible for defining the editorial line on European affairs and global governance for the FTD and its affiliated news magazines. Through the FTD, he advocated for a stronger European Union, less energy dependence on Russia, EU membership for Turkey, and…

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Kala Mulqueeny

Kala Mulqueeny is an Australian environmental and energy lawyer at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) where she leads the law, policy, and development program relating to the environment, energy, climate change, and legal empowerment. She also leads ADB's Asia Pacific Dialogue on Clean Energy Governance and Regulation among energy policy-makers and regulators in Asia and USAID, the International Energy Agency, and World Resources Institute. She has also initiated the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Energy Regulators Network. Kala was a lawyer on the first Integrated Gas and Combined Cycle Project in China (and the developing world) and is responsible for ADB's work on the regulation of…

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Edward "Ted" Wittenstein

Edward (“Ted”) Wittenstein is a Senior Lecturer in Global Affairs and Director of the Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power, a signature teaching and research initiative of the Jackson School that examines how AI has the potential to alter fundamental building blocks of world order.  A former diplomat and intelligence professional, Ted teaches undergraduate, graduate, and law courses on intelligence, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, national security decision-making, and the outer space domain. He also serves as Co-Director of the Johnson Center for the Study of American Diplomacy and the Yale Cyber Leadership Forum, as well as a visiting faculty fellow at Yale Law School’s Center for Global Legal Challenges. Ted is a graduate of…

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Alexey Navalny

Alexey Navalny is the leader of Russian opposition and the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. He has become well-known for his anti-corruption investigations against Russian state corporations and senior officials. Alexey participated in Russian presidential election in 2018, and in the course of the campaign he opened 81 regional headquarters all over the country. 41 of them are currently in operation, which makes his network the biggest opposition organization in Russia. In August 2020 Alexey was attacked with a Novichok nerve agent by Russian operatives and later sentenced to 9 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of fraud and contempt of court. Due to fabrications of criminal cases,…

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Diana Tsui

Diana Tsui has served as Head of Global Philanthropy for Asia Pacific at J.P. Morgan since 2014, working to develop grant-making and corporate responsibility strategies across 14 countries in the region. Previously, Diana was the Head of CSR and Diversity for KPMG China and Hong Hong. In 2008, Diana also oversaw the establishment of and served as CEO of the KPMG Foundation. Her previous positions include working as Managing Director of Mercy Corps East Asia, and as Head of Community Affairs for Nike's Asia Pacific region. She has worked closely with multinationals, governments, and international organizations such as the European Commission, ILO, Asia Development Bank, and the World Bank China,…

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