Kristiina Kuvaja-Xanthopoulos is the Deputy Director General of the Department for Africa and the Middle East at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland. Dr Kuvaja-Xanthopoulous has worked and conducted research in several countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. In addition to various positions within the Finnish Foreign Service she has served as a National Expert seconded by the Finnish MFA to the Directorate-General for Development in the European Commission.
Benno Ndulu currently holds the Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Development at the University of Dar-es-Salaam; and is an Academic Co-Director of Pathways to Prosperity: Commission on Technology and Inclusive Development hosted at the University of Oxford. He is the former Governor of the Bank of Tanzania (2008-2018) and has previously held positions as Professor at the University of Dar es Salaam; Executive Director of the AERC; and leading positions at the World Bank.
Ravi Kanbur is T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs at Cornell University. He has served on the senior staff of the World Bank, including as Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the Africa Region, as Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank, and as Director of the World Bank's World Development Report. Professor Kanbur has published over 250 publications during his career.
Ann E. Harrison is the incoming dean of Berkeley Haas, at the University of California, Berkeley. She us William H. Wurster Professor of Multinational Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Research Fellow at the CEPR and an affiliate of the International Growth Centre in London. She previously served as the US Representative on the United Nation’s Committee on Development Policy. Professor Harrison has also serves as the Director of Development Policy at the World Bank.
David Malone is Rector of the United Nations University and the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. He is a former Canadian public servant and previously held positions as Canada's High Commissioner for India, Non-Resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal, Canadian Ambassador to the UN and served as President of Canada’s International Development Research Centre. He holds a MPA from Harvard University and a DPhil from Oxford University. Dr Malone has published extensively on peace and security issues.
Finn Tarp is the Director of UNU-WIDER and Professor of Economics at University of Copenhagen. His field experience covers more than two decades of in-country work in 35 countries across Africa and the developing world more generally. Professor Tarp research focus is on issues of development strategy and foreign aid, with an interest in poverty, income distribution and growth, micro- and macroeconomic policy and modelling, agricultural sector policy and planning, household and enterprise development.