Person Type: World Fellow
Renzo Martens
Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist and filmmaker and currently serves as Co-Founder and Director of the Institute for Human Activities. The Institute has launched a five-year program in the Congolese interior, bringing together artists, thinkers and specialists. With a nod to precedents set in cities like New York and Berlin, the Institute aims to turn art production into an engine of economic growth in Congo, hoping to improve the lives of the people around its settlement.  In his first film, Episode 1, Renzo travels to Chechnya to adopt a rarely defined role in contemporary war: that of its spectator. Episode 3, also known as Enjoy Poverty, is a…
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Mteto Nyati
Mteto Nyati is the executive chairman of BSG, a homegrown consulting and technology company that specialises in strategy execution. In BSG he holds a 40% shareholding through his investment vehicle, Wazo Investments. Mteto is also the chairman of Eskom. Previously, he was the Group Chief Executive of Altron and Chief Executive Officer of MTN South Africa. He is the author of the number one bestseller, Betting on a Darkie, a book about his life as a shopkeeper’s son, family man, and business leader at local and multinational corporates. Mteto mentors and coaches senior executives, including CEOs as well as up and coming business professionals. In 2021, the University of Johannesburg’s…
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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…
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Philip Gain
Philip Gain works on human rights and environmental issues in Bangladesh, combining investigative journalism with a systematic pursuit of policy change. The outputs of his research and investigations–books, monographs, special reports, documentary films, and photographic works are widely used as readings in general and in classrooms. He is also an adjunct faculty member at a private university in Dhaka where he teaches environmental communication, development communication, and advanced reporting. With a number of reporting guides and resource books he has authored and edited he also teaches working journalists skills of in-depth reporting. For the past decade his work with tea plantation workers, indigenous peoples, and other excluded communities of Bangladesh…
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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…
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Jessica Faieta
Jessica Faieta is Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Colombia since April 2019. She is also the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations System in Colombia. Jessica has more than 28 years of distinguished service in the United Nations. Prior to this appointment, from March 2018 to March 2019, she was the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia. Since 2014, she was UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Previously she served as Director of UNDP in Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 Earthquake; She led…
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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…
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Marvin Dames
The Honourable Marvin Dames currently serves as the Minister of National Security for The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. He previously served as 23-year veteran of the Royal Bahamas Police Force with his last post as the Deputy Commissioner of Police. In 2011, Marvin joined the corporate team responsible for opening the luxury resort, Baha Mar, in Nassau. In this executive role, he was responsible for providing advice and direction on Baha Mar's security-related needs during all phases of the project from design to operations. Marvin has received training from the FBI Academy in the United States, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police College in Ottawa, Canada, and a five-month Strategic Leadership…
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Subhashini Chandran
As Vice President, Social Impact, Asia Pacific (AP) at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (CFIG), Subhashini Chandran is responsible for overseeing, executing, and scaling the Center’s strategy in Asia Pacific, contributing to global and regional objectives. In her role, she drives all regional CFIG activity covering programs, data and insights, strategic engagement, and partnerships. Subhashini has 25+ years of experience spanning the private and development sectors. She began her professional journey as an entrepreneur, growing her family’s tea farm in South India, to be one of India’s largest privately owned tea companies, employing ~7000 women. More recently, she has focused on the inclusion of small businesses and women-led enterprises…
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Chantal-Line Carpentier
Dr. Chantal-Line Carpentier is Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Prior to that, she was actively involved in the successful negotiations of the Sustainable Development Goals for the Division for Sustainable Development of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). During her time with DESA, she acted as Major Groups Coordinator to enhance non-state actors engagement with the UN system on sustainable development. She facilitated the participation of more than 10,000 non-state actor participation in the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. She was also focal point for sustainable consumption and production, food security and sustainable agriculture. Prior to her UN career, Chantal-Line…
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