Hanifa Alizada was born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, in 1989. When she was 8 years old, her family migrated to Tehran, Iran, as a result of civil wars and deteriorating conditions in her country at the time. Alizada studied at a Tehran school for Afghan refugees. Because schooling beyond grade 7 was not available to Afghan refugees in Iran, Alizada’s parents returned to Afghanistan and settled in…
Type: Expert
Sam Walsh was appointed Rio Tinto chief executive on 17 January 2013. He has served as an executive director to the boards of Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited since June 2009. As chief executive, Sam is driving a substantive transformation agenda to re-focus the business on delivering greater value for shareholders. Sam has prioritized strengthening the balance sheet. In 2013, he reduced cash…
Type: Expert
Ambar Narayan, a Lead Economist in the Poverty Global Practice of the World Bank, focuses on policy analysis and research on micro development issues, on topics such as inequality of opportunity, poverty reduction, policy and program evaluation, and the impact of economic shocks. He leads the central support team for the World Bank’s Systematic Country Diagnostics, and in the past has worked in…
Type: Expert
Glenn-Marie Lange leads the Global Partnership for Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES), which is working in more than severalcountries to mainstream natural capital in development planning and national economic accounts. Dr. Lange joined the World Bank in 2009, coming from the Earth Institute at Columbia University (2004-2008), where her work focused broadly on…
Type: Expert
Michael R. Bloomberg was the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. During his term, his passion for public health has led to ambitious new health strategies that have become national models, including a ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, as well as parks and beaches. On 31 January 2014, he was appointed as the UN’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, assisting the UNSG in…
Type: Expert
Dr Margaret Chan, from the People's Republic of China, obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She joined the Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978, where her career in public health began. In 1994, Dr Chan was appointed Director of Health of Hong Kong. In her nine-year tenure as director, she launched new services to prevent the spread of disease and…
Type: Expert
Jin-Yong Cai is Executive Vice President and CEO of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused on private sector development and the fight against poverty. Cai, a Chinese national, joined IFC on October 1, 2012. He has extensive experience in private sector development in emerging markets across the globe. He also has deep expertise in a variety…
Type: Expert
Ashish Thakkar is a serial entrepreneur who founded his first business in 1996 at the age of 15 with a $5,000 loan. Since then, he has driven the growth of the company from a small IT business in Uganda to the globally recognized multi-sector investment group that exists today. Through its investments, Mara Group employs over 8,000 people across 19 African countries in sectors spanning technology…
Type: Expert
Børge Brende has been Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs since October 16, 2013. He also served as Minister of the Environment and as Minister of Trade and Industry, and as a member of the Storting. Brende has also been a member of the Norwegian Parliament for the Conservative Party for more than 10 years. Brende also served as Managing Director of the World Economic Forum with responsibility…
Type: Expert
