Focus: Art/Culture
DU Yang
DU Yang is the co-founder of China Philanthropist Magazine and CiMedia Group, a pioneering joint venture and an influential media source for the philanthropy industry in China. His work focuses on building partnerships and networks with global philanthropists and Chinaâs growing philanthropy sector. As a culture âambassadorâ in the philanthropy industry, he has been involved in the process of launching a platform of Chinaâs top philanthropists and an east-west cultural program. DU is also on the advisory board of Mediadesign Hochschule – MD.H Berlin. Â
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Nandita Das
Nandita Das is a filmmaker, actor, and social advocate. She has acted in more than 40 feature films in 10 different languages. Her directorial debut feature film, Firaaq, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008 and has travelled to over 50 festivals and won more than 20 awards. Nandita was a member of the main jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 and 2013 and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2007 amongst others. She also wrote, directed and acted in the play, Between the Lines, in 2012, that dealt with the subtle gender inequalities that exist amongst the affluent, educated, and urban couples. Nandita's second directorial…
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Saleh Barakat
Saleh Barakat is an expert in contemporary Arab art and founded the Agial Art Gallery in 1991 and Saleh Barakat Gallery in 2016, both in Beirut. As the executive manager of the two galleries, he has participated in building major collections of modern and contemporary Arab art. With a strong business background with decades of experience in the art sector, Saleh is deeply engaged in developing a healthy market environment for creative expression in the Arab world. He has curated several pan-Arab exhibitions including the IXth Francophone Summit in Beirut, the 2003 World Bank Summit in Dubai, and "The Road to Peace: Painting in Times of War 1975-1991" at the…
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Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a United Arab Emirates-based columnist and researcher on social, political and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf States. Sultan rose in prominence during the Arab Spring when his tweets became a major news source, rivaling news networks at the time, until TIME magazine listed him in the â140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2011.â In 2018 Sultan ranked 19th on the "Arabic Thought Leader Index" by Swiss think tank Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. Sultan was an MIT Media Lab Directorâs Fellow from 2014-2016, and in the spring of 2017 he was a practitioner in residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center of Near East Studies at New York…
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Udo Jude Ilo
Udo Jude Ilo is the Senior Director for Advocacy at the Centre for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC). In this role Udo sets and drives the global advocacy goal of the organization aimed at amplifying the voices of communities caught in conflict and promoting global norms and practices to ensure optimal protection of civilians. Udo Jude Ilo has close to two decades experience working in the democracy space, driving social innovation and influencing change. Udoâs focus has been about creativity and finding new tools for democracy promotion. As the Nigerian representative for the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), Udo provided strategic leadership in opening the frontier of governance and…
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Akisa Omulepu
Akisa Omulepu is an Emmy-nominated documentarian, director, and producer. She is the founder of Emerge Omnimedia. Emergeâs mission is to create and tell stories that explore, investigate, and celebrate the experiences of people from the African Diaspora. Most recently she directed and produced a documentary short for PBS. 'A Dream Deferred, The Broken Promise of New York City Public Housing' was nominated for two Emmys. Her documentary short, âCrowned,â debuted and had a limited engagement at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City. The film explores the lives of three young African-American women navigating their way from high school to college. A native New Yorker to Panamanian and Kenyan…
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Omar Mohammed
Omar Mohammed is a historian from Mosul, Iraq known until recently only as the anonymous blogger âMosul Eyeâ. Through Mosul Eye, Omar set out to inform the world about life under the Islamic State in his city. His focus has now shifted to advocacy of social initiatives for the people of Mosul including the international effort to re-supply Central Library of the University of Mosul. At the intersection of media, academia and civil society, Omar is motivated to develop new networks of collaboration and innovations in humanitarian action. As a historian and lecturer at the University of Mosul, he focuses his scholarly work on conceptual history and research dealing with…
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Ayush Chauhan
Ayush Chauhan heads up a multi-disciplinary design and innovation consultancy firm, Quicksand, working at the intersection of business, development, and culture. He promotes design for social development by connecting the best practices of design, technology and behavior science with development programs to address the pressing and complex issues of social equity, public health, and education. In this capacity, he has worked with organizations such as Unilever, Google, World Bank, UNICEF, CIFF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, amongst many more, to design products and services that promote sustainability and quality of life for low-income communities. An entrepreneur, educator, and mentor, Ayush is also the co-founder of UnBox, the first…
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Vera D. Kwakofi
Vera D. Kwakofi is a Senior News Editor, Commissioning with the BBC World Service and is responsible for the BBCâs International TV Operations in Africa. She leads teams of journalists based across Africa and in the UK who produce the multi-award-winning Africa Eye Investigations, Business, Health, Sport, Women, News Analysis and Factual and Youth content for Africa in English, French, and Swahili. Vera has more than 20 years of experience in international journalism and commissioning content across multiple platforms with a particular focus on telling African Stories to global audiences. She created the BBC Women of Africa Series, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She actively participates in…
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Ibrahima Amadou Niang
Ibrahima "Ibou" Amadou Niang is the Team Manager for the Global Initiative for the Restitution of African Heritage at Open Society Foundations. He is also a creative activist, researcher, and published author. For over ten years he has been striving to advance democracy and human rights across Africa. A native of Senegal, he has worked on social justice issues as an NGO activist, a democracy and electoral assistance provider, a grantmaker, a political writer, and translated poet. As a creative activist, Ibou uses his power of words and imagery to move people from awareness to action. These messages are disseminated across the world to a diverse audience through his books…
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