Kofi Annan
President

“Today’s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.”  read more...

Ivan Pictet 
Vice-President
Senior Managing Partner, Pictet & Cie

Ivan Pictet is currently senior partner at Pictet & Cie. The Pictet Group is a European leader in private and institutional asset management, as well as in fund management and distribution.  read more...

Catherine Bertini
Professor of Public Administration, the Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University;
WFP Executive Director; Senior Fellow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (1992–2002)

Catherine Bertini is Professor of Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, New York, USA. She was Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 1992 to 2002, where she emphasized the pivotal role of women in ensuring food distribution and oversaw extensive changes that were described as a model for UN reform. Prior to this, she held various positions in both the public and private sectors in the USA. read more...

Lakhdar Brahimi
Chair of the Panel on UN Peace Operations; Foreign Minister,
Algeria (1991–1993)
 
Lakhdar Brahimi is a former Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs with wide experience in international diplomacy. He is now Professor-at-large at Cornell University and member of “The Elders” at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, a group created at the initiative of Nelson Mandela. From 1993 to the end of 2005 he was Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and served, in particular, as Special Representative or Special Envoy of the Secretary-General in South Africa (1993–1994), Haiti (1994–1996), Afghanistan (1997–1999 and 2001–2004) and Iraq (2004). In 2004 and 2005 he acted as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General. read more...

Mary Chinery-Hesse
Chief Advisor to the President of Ghana

Mary Chinery-Hesse is currently the Chief Advisor to the President of the Republic of Ghana. She is also the Vice-Chairperson of the National Development Planning Commission, a member of the board of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), and a member of the Council of the University of Ghana. read more...

Michel Camdessus
Member, Commission for Africa; Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, 1987-2000; Governor, Bank of France, 1984-1987

For 13 years, (1987-2000) Michel Camdessus was Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. He was also a member of the Commission for Africa and is currently a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP). Widely published on a broad range of topics, the French economist has proposed reforms in France and called for “globalization with a human face.” read more...

Jan Egeland
Director, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs;
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
and Emergency Relief Coordinator (2003–2006)

Jan Egeland currently serves as a Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Egeland has also recently been appointed as the new director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and has entered this position in September 2007. read more...

Jacques Forster
Vice-President, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; Vice-President,
International Committee of the Red Cross (1999–2007)

Jacques Forster is currently Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and honorary Professor of the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED), Geneva. Mr. Forster was Director of IUED from 1980 to 1992 and serves as a member of the ICRC since 1988. He has recently been appointed Vice-President of the Foundation Board of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, which merges the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) and IUED. read more...

Dean Hirsch
President and CEO, World Vision

Dean Hirsch has been President and Chief Executive Officer of World Vision International since 1996. As one of the world’s largest non-governmental organizations devoted to humanitarian causes, World Vision assists approximately 100 million people in 98 countries. It has an annual budget of US$2.6 billion and employs 40,000 people. read more...

Goh Kee Nguan
CEO, Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee; Brigadier General (National Service), Singapore Armed Forces 

A Brigadier General in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) with strong humanitarian convictions, Goh Kee Nguan has had a multi-national, multi-professional education. He graduated from the Royal Military College of Duntroon in Australia, took a degree in computer programming from the University of New South Wales, and earned a Master in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College.  read more...

Rita Hauser
Chair of the International Peace Institute
President, Hauser Foundation

Rita Hauser is currently Chair of the International Peace Institute Board of Directors, a leading international institution dedicated to promoting the prevention and settlement of armed conflict. Dr. Hauser is also President of The Hauser Foundation. She is an international lawyer and was a senior partner for more than twenty years at the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. Known for her public service and philanthropic work, she is interested in international conflict resolution, security and human rights. read more...

HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein
UN Messenger of Peace
Chairperson, International Humanitarian City
Founder, Tkiyet Um Ali

A graduate of Oxford University and active in the United Nations, HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein was appointed as a UN Messenger of Peace in 2007 by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2005 to 2007 Princess Haya served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme. read more...

Alois Hirschmugl
Brigadier General, Austrian Armed Forces

Alois Hirschmugl, Humanitarian Affairs Advisor to the Austrian Chief of Defence Staff, is a Brigadier General with the Austrian Armed Forces. He has over 30 years of military experience and special expertise in the field of international military legal advisory, verification of arms control agreements, civil-military coordination and cooperation and civil emergency planning. Since 2006 he also is officiated as external legal expert for the International Criminal Court. read more...

Hans Küng
President, Global Ethics Foundation

Hans Küng is a highly-respected, Swiss-born, ecumenical advocate and theologian, a highly-controversial Catholic priest, a prolific author, and the creator of the Foundation for a Global Ethic. read more...

Ricardo Lagos
President of Chile (2000-2006)
Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General on Climate Change
President, Club of Madrid

The first Socialist President of Chile since the 1973 coup d’état overthrew Salvador Allende, Ricardo Lagos will be remembered by the Chilean people for his courageous televised criticism of General Augusto Pinochet. He denounced Pinochet for his "years of torture, murder and human rights violations" at a time when the dictator was still in power. Many people were convinced that Lagos would not be alive the next day.  read more...

Dante Martinelli
Swiss Ambassador to Geneva

Born in the Italian-speaking Ticino area of Switzerland, educated with honours at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (“Sciences Po’”), veteran Swiss career diplomat Dante Martinelli recently left Beijing as Switzerland’s Ambassador to China to become the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to intergovernmental organizations in Geneva. read more...

Rajendra K. Pachauri
Nobel Peace Laureate (2007)
Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Rajendra K. Pachauri is the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which provides specialized support to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Mr. Pachauri is also Director-General of the Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, India, which works for the development of solutions to global problems in the fields of development, energy and the environment. read more...

Mary Robinson
President, Realising Rights
Honorary President, Oxfam International
Chancellor, University of Dublin

As President of Ireland, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a professor of law and an activist in many concerned organizations and in legislative bodies, Mary Robinson has campaigned on behalf of the poor and vulnerable in developing countries. A committed humanitarian, she championed women’s rights and leadership, more humane migration policies, more equitable trade, and broader human rights. read more...

Judith Rodin
President, Rockefeller Foundation

Judith Rodin has served as president of the Rockefeller Foundation since March 2005.

Trained as a research psychologist, Ms. Rodin was previously the president of the University of Pennsylvania, and earlier the provost of Yale University. A pioneer in the behavioural medicine movement, she taught at New York University prior to spending 22 years on the faculty of Yale, where she ultimately held appointments in both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine. In 1994, her appointment as president of Pennsylvania University made her the first woman to serve as the head of an Ivy League institution. read more...

Jean-Louis Schiltz
Minister, Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Communications and Defence, Luxembourg

Jean-Louis Schiltz, Luxembourg’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Communications and Defence, has pursued three often simultaneous careers – political, legal and academic. read more...

Amartya Sen
1998 Nobel Economics Laureate; Professor of Economics and philosophy, Harvard University

A man of ideas, Amartya Sen has taught economics at an astonishing number of prestigious universities in Asia, Europe, and North America. In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for economics “for his contribution to welfare economics” and for his work on famine, human development theory, and the underlying mechanisms of poverty. read more...

Barbara Stocking
Chief Executive, Oxfam GB

Barbara Stocking currently serves as the Chief Executive of Oxfam Great Britain – a non-governmental organization with projects in some 80 countries throughout the world. Since joining Oxfam, she has led the organization’s response to humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Oxfam’s humanitarian actions during the Indian Ocean Tsunami crisis and the Pakistan earthquake. read more...

Marianna V. Vardinoyannis
Goodwill Ambassador UNESCO
President Foundation for the Child and the Family

A Greek philanthropist, a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a social activist, Marianna V. Vardinoyannis has focused on the rights, the education and the welfare of children on national, European and international levels. She is the founder and president of the Athens-based Foundation for the Child and the Family and the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer “ELPIDA”.  read more...

James Wolfensohn
Founder, the Wolfensohn Centre at the Brookings
Institute, Washington DC
President of the World Bank Group (1995–2005)

James Wolfensohn served as the ninth president of the World Bank Group from 1995 until 2005. After serving two terms at the head of the World Bank, he founded the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institute – a Washington D.C. based think tank. The center examines how to implement, scale-up, and sustain interventions to solve key development challenges at a national, regional and global level, and strives to bridge the gap between development theorists and practitioners.  read more...

Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Peace Laureate (2006); Founder and
Managing Director, Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank. Mr Yunus was co-recipient with the Grameen Bank of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize "for efforts to create economic and social development from below". He pioneered the concept of microcredit – the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs who may otherwise be too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. read more...