Focus: Government/Politics
Sang-Jo Kim
Sang-Jo Kim is the Chief Presidential Secretary for Policy for the Republic of Korea. Previously, he was Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission. He has played a key role in building consensus for economic reform following South Korea's financial crisis in the late 1990s. Sang-Jo is also a professor of economics at Hansung University and chairs 'Solidarity for Economic Reform' (SER), a civil organization dedicated to enhancing the corporate governance system through minority shareholder campaigning. Under his leadership, the group won several landmark lawsuits including the one against the directors of Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors. The cases have become the cornerstone for more clearly defining the fiduciary duties…
More Information
Fatema Jafari
Fatema Jafari is a women’s rights advocate and public official working as a member of the Provincial Council of Herat for more than 10 years, where she serves on a number of committees related to women’s rights in Afghanistan. As the head of the family support committee for three years, she facilitated the creation of an umbrella group of roughly 80 women’s organizations to help coordinate their efforts. Previously she participated in three Loya Jirga Assemblies (consultative councils) for peace and security issues from 2009–2013 and recently the Peace Loya Jirga in April 2019. She has worked on several advocacy campaigns opposing violence against women and has pressed for greater…
More Information
Irène C. Hors
Irène C. Hors is Deputy Director of the Public Governance Directorate at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She leads efforts to design and implement strategic, evidence-based and innovative policies to strengthen good governance. She was previously the first-ever OECD adviser in Beijing, where she is laid the groundwork for China's engagement with the organization, including providing strategic advice to OECD headquarters on the development of the OECD-China relationship, building and facilitating contacts with the Chinese administration, tracking policy developments and providing insight into the OECD-China relationship. Previously, Irène served as Coordinator of the China Governance Program at the OECD in Paris and was a manager in the Anti-Corruption…
More Information
José Luis Chicoma
JosĂ© Luis Chicoma is the Minister of Production of Peru. He previously served as executive director of Ethos Public Policy Lab, a Mexican think tank that promotes development and sustainable food systems. He was the editor and coordinator of the publication “Transforming our food systems: Inspirational stories and proposals” and has served as a core member of the Tortilla Alliance, the Mexican AgTech network, as well as other coalitions that advocate for sustainable and healthy food systems. He also frequently writes and speaks internationally about the intersection of food and politics. He previously held several high-level positions in the Peruvian government, including serving as Vice Minister of Small and Medium…
More Information
Thora Arnorsdottir
Thora Arnorsdottir is Managing Editor at Iceland's Kveikur, RUV TV, a television program focused on investigative journalism. In addition to being a renowned media personality and documentary filmmaker, she was also a 2012 candidate for the Presidency of Iceland. Although she lost the election by a narrow margin, Thora sparked international debate on gender roles and equality: she was 8 months pregnant with her third child when she announced her candidacy. Thora has worked at Icelandic National Broadcasting Service as a news editor and journalist, and she is Founder and Owner of Hugveitan, a documentary production company that has created films including Outlaws: The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Society…
More Information
Vinicius Marques de Carvalho
Vinicius Marques de Carvalho is a lawyer with deep experience in competition law, public policy, and economic regulation. He is currently in charge of the anti-corruption agenda as the Minister of the Office of the Comptroller General for the government of Brazil. Vinicius previously served as president of CADE, the Brazilian antitrust authority. Vinicius successfully led the transition from the previous to the current Brazilian system for competition defense, which raised the bar for competition enforcement in Brazil, resulting in CADE's recognition by the Global Competition Review as the Agency of the Year in 2014. Vinicius was also the vice-chair of implementation at the International Competition Network and a professor of…
More Information
Vincent Ni
Vincent Ni is the Asia Editor at NPR, in which role he oversees the US public broadcaster’s coverage from Afghanistan to Japan. As an international journalist, he has reported from the Middle East, Europe and Asia. He also reported from the US on the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Before joining NPR, Vincent was the China Affairs correspondent for The Guardian newspaper, where he wrote about the politics, economy and changing society of the world’s most populous nation. Prior to The Guardian, Vincent spent seven years at the BBC. He worked across platforms and launched an internal forum called BBC Asia Brief. In 2019 he created and edited Asia Matters…
More Information
Sofia Frech
Sofia Frech is a coordinator in the Ministry of Education for the government of Mexico. She was previously the program coordinator for the development of social-emotional skills in the Mexican high school system until November 2018. Her professional career has been developed in the educational and public sphere. In the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), she was the director of the Center of Studies on Education. In the public sector, she has collaborated in several areas, including the Office of the President and the Ministry of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in government and public administration from the Complutense University of Madrid, a master's in education from…
More Information
Lumumba Di-Aping
Lumumba Di-Aping is a Sudanese diplomat and has served in the Sudan Mission to the United Nations since 2008. Lumumba has dedicated his career in both the public and private sectors to addressing the inequality that hinders the development of the Global South. Starting as a strategy consultant and investment banker at Greenwich Capital, from 2006 to 2012, he served as Ambassador and Deputy Head of the Sudan mission to the United Nations. During that tenure, he was Lead Negotiator for Developing Countries on Energy, Environment, Trade and Global Governance and Chairman of the G77+China group of 132 developing nations and led the block's negotiation on reform of the International…
More Information