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
Ali Velshi is the host of “Real Money with Ali Velshi”, a half hour nightly business news program on Al Jazeera America. He was the first on-air hire for the new cable news network, Al Jazeera America. Prior to that, Velshi served as CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent, anchor of CNN International’s World Business Today, and host of CNN’s weekly business roundtable Your Money. In 2010, Velshi was…
Type: Expert
Nargis Shirazi, a community psychologist with a Masters in Public Health, is a co-founder of WO-MAN Foundation. She also serves as the project manager for the It Takes Two campaign that launched on Women’s Day in Uganda. Nargis is a playwright and poet, and uses the arts and entertainment to promote positive health messages. She is passionate about family planning for youth and is an advocate of…
Type: Expert
Chernor Bah, Chairman of the Youth Advocacy Group for the Global Education First Initiative. Chernor is a lead youth advocate for global education, a girl champion and former refugee from Sierra Leone. He is Youth Engagement Coordinator for A World at School. Chernor serves as the youth representative on the High-Level Steering committee for the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First…
Type: Expert
At 14, Australian-born Hugh Evans spent the night in a Manila slum. The realities of his hosts’ lives motivated him to challenge the status quo of extreme poverty. After a trip to S. Africa in 2002, Evans built Make Poverty History, staging the Make Poverty History Concert. In 2012, Evans launched the Global Citizen Festival — a free, ticketed event requiring fans to perform anti-poverty actions…
Type: Expert
Isha Sesay is an anchor and correspondent for CNN, appearing on programs across CNN International, HLN and CNN/U.S. She is based at the network’s global headquarters in Atlanta. On CNN International Sesay anchors “CNN NewsCenter,” a half-hour, weekday news program that takes viewers through the day’s big stories of global importance. She also hosts “BackStory,” the weekly program that goes behind…
Type: Expert
