Focus: Media/Journalism
Joshin Raghubar
Joshin Raghubar is technology and impact venture entrepreneur. He is the founder of iKineo Ventures, a venture builder and investment firm, through which is he currently growing Explore Sideways, a leading immersive travel(tech) company; Adbot, a machine-learning powered B2B SaaS platform that automates online search advertising for SMEs; and Inves Capital, a group of digital asset and cryptocurrency businesses building the future of money. He is also the Africa partner for Webrock Ventures, a LATAM/ Swedish venture builder and investment firm, through which he is a co-founder of Kena Health, a health-tech venture which aims to be Africa’s leading low-cost primary healthcare provider. His former ventures include iKineo (marketing), Strive,…
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Akisa Omulepu
Akisa Omulepu is an Emmy-nominated documentarian, director, and producer. She is the founder of Emerge Omnimedia. Emerge’s 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, ‘Crowned,’ 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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Claudia López
Claudia López is the Mayor of Bogotá, previously serving as a Senator for the Republic of Colombia from 2014 to 2019. Her dedication to strengthening human rights and the rule of law makes her one of the most well-known contributors to democratic development in Colombia. A former researcher for New Rainbow Corporation and Civil Society Electoral Mission, Claudia is one of Colombia's most respected political analysts: she exposed the infiltration of paramilitary death squads at some of the highest levels of Colombia’s political system. Her research on the infiltration of paramilitary groups in the Colombian Congress triggered a national scandal known as "parapolitics" which led to the legal investigation of…
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Stefaan De Rynck
Stefaan De Rynck is the Representative of the European Commission in Belgium, creating a bridge between the work of the EU’s executive and Belgian politics and society. Previously, he worked as Senior Adviser to Michel Barnier, who was the European Union’s Chief Negotiator for Brexit (2016-2021). De Rynck published a book in 2023 on those historic negotiations (“Inside the Deal. How the EU got Brexit done”). His experience in EU affairs covers sustainable urban development, financial service and banking regulation, economic integration in the single market, and transport policy. He worked on various reforms of the EU Treaties and served as spokesperson and political advisor for Members of the European…
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Anuradha Das Mathur
Anuradha Das Mathur is the founding dean of The Vedica Scholars Programme for Women, an 18-month residential program in management practice for young women. She is committed to bringing more women into the workplace and ensuring their dignity through financial independence. Anuradha is also a senior advisor to the Albright Stonebridge Group, where she works at the intersection of government, business and civil society to help international organizations with their India strategies. She is a founder director at 9.9 Media, India’s fastest growing niche media company, where she leads a number of professional communities including CFOs and entrepreneurs; the research, advisory and custom services; as well as India’s first Speaker…
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Shu "George" Chen
Shu “George” Chen is a Senior Fellow for the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), for which he has helped to launch and lead the Tech for Good Initiative. As a practitioner–scholar, George’s career spans media, technology and policy for over two decades. Prior to the HKU, George served as Meta’s first-ever Managing Director of Public Policy for Greater China, Mongolia, and Central Asia for more than seven years, making him the most senior policy representative responsible for the vast the diverse regions. George joined Meta (then known as Facebook) in January 2016 to build the company’s regional policy operation from scratch out of its Hong Kong…
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Fakhar Durrani
Fakhar Durrani is a journalist with The News International, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper. He is part of the news organization’s Investigation Cell, which reports in-depth and investigative stories, often in high-risk situations. He focuses on corruption and embezzlement in government departments, misuse of authority by government officials, tax evasion issues, health and education related topics, abuse of human rights, and other social issues. Recently he was part of 600 leading investigative journalists who collaborated with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in the Pandora Papers investigations. During this collaboration, Durrani, along with one of his colleagues, unearthed millions of dollars offshore holdings of more than 700 Pakistanis which they…
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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 BBC’s 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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Taras Shevchenko
Taras Shevchenko serves as a Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine since August 2020. In 2017 when he participated in YWF Program he was an activist and Co-Founder of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR), a coalition of reform-oriented NGOs and experts, which began after the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. Taras served as Board Co-Chairman for RPR, which brings together 73 NGOs that develop, promote, and control implementation of reforms. It has proved to be a unique coalition that has advocated more than 100 laws. Taras is also Founder and was during 15 years an Executive Director of Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law, an…
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Abhik Sen
Abhik is a senior adviser with the United Nations on innovation and partnerships that can help accelerate sustainable development at the national and international levels. Previously, he was the first Head of Innovation and Partnerships at the Commonwealth Secretariat, the inter-governmental organization for the Commonwealth of Nations. In this role, Abhik provided capacity building assistance to governments, facilitated system-wide innovation, mobilized resources and managed the Commonwealth’s partnerships with other international institutions. He also launched and led the Commonwealth Innovation Ecosystem Program to foster digital transformation and sustainability, scale public innovation, support grassroots innovators and ignite partnerships between the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to this, as Head of Policy and…
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