Closing Plenary

Speakers

• Lydia Wilbard

  Speaker

  Co-Director, CAMFED

  Lydia Wilbard is Co-Director of Camfed Tanzania and Co-Founder of the Tanzania chapter of Cama, the pan-African network of educated young women supported by Camfed. Lydia has been central to Camfed Tanzania’s programme of support to 310,512 children and young women, and is a specialist in gender, education and health with a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. A leader and role model, Lydia grew up in rural Tanzania and has personally overcome the barriers to women’s empowerment.

  Read Full Bio
• Vera Cordeiro

  Speaker

  Founder & Chairwoman of the Board, Instituto Dara

  Founder and Chairwoman - Vera Cordeiro graduated in medicine from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in 1975. From 1978 to 1998, she worked at Hospital da Lagoa, a Federal Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, originally working as a general practitioner. She founded and led the Psychosomatics Department in 1979. In 1991, she founded Instituto Dara (former Associação Saúde Criança), a social organization that uses a pioneering methodology to promote the well-being of families in situations of social vulnerability, with long-term results, as proven by researchers at Georgetown University in 2013. Instituto Dara has been awarded among the many prizes received in Brazil and abroad Dr. Vera is an Ashoka fellow, Avina leader, Social Entrepreneur of Schwab Foundation andSkoll awardee. Honorary Member of the Ashoka World Council. Member of the Academy of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro and former board member of the PATH: A Catalyst for Global Health from 2005 to 2011.

  Read Full Bio
• Kofi Annan

  Speaker

  Former United Nations Secretary-General, The Elders

  Kofi A. Annan was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, serving two terms from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006, and was the first to emerge from the ranks of United Nations staff. In 2001, Kofi Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2007, Kofi Annan established the Kofi Annan Foundation to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer and more secure world. In addition, Mr. Annan is Chair of the Elders.

  Read Full Bio
• Ray Suarez

  Moderator

  Freelance Journalist, Individual

  Ray Suarez is a host of the radio and podcast series WorldAffairs, heard on KQED San Francisco and public radio stations around the country, and a Washington reporter for Euronews. He recently completed an appointment as the McCloy Visiting Professor of American Studies at Amherst College. Suarez hosted Inside Story, a daily news program on Al Jazeera America, until the network ceased operation in 2016. Suarez joined American public television’s nightly newscast, The PBS NewsHour in 1999 and was a senior correspondent until 2013. During his years at the NewsHour he was assigned to cover global health. His reporting from Africa, Asia, and Latin America won many awards. He hosted NPR’s Talk of the Nation from 1993-1999. In more than 40 years in the news business, he has worked as a reporter in London and Rome, as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, and for the NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV in Chicago. Suarez is the author of three books: Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation (Penguin, 2013), The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration: 1966-1999, reporting on the causes of the destitution found in American cities after the Second World War, andThe Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, examining how organized religion and politics intersect in America. His next work, on immigration, political, demographic, and cultural change, will appear in 2023. He is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to American Politics (June 2012), and many other books, including How I Learned English, Brooklyn: A State of Mind, Saving America's Treasures, and About Men. He’s been published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Britain's Independent, Harvard University's Nieman Reports, and the Chicago Tribune.

  Read Full Bio
• Gro Harlem Brundtland

  Speaker

  Former Prime Minister of Norway and Deputy Chair, The Elders

  Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, served as Director General of the World Health Organization from July 1998-2003. From 2007-2009, she was the UN Secretary-General`s Special Envoy for Climate Change. Dr. Brundtland has served on the UN Secretary-General`s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability since its launch in August 2010. As Deputy Chair of The Elders, she contributes her wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackling the world’s toughest problems, with the aim of making the world a better place.

  Read Full Bio
• Robert Fogarty

  Speaker

  Founder, Dear World

  Robert X. Fogarty’s portrait project, Dear World, began in New Orleans as photographic love notes to the city. He now uses his distinct message-on-skin-style to tell stories of subjects regardless of religion, race or language. Thousands have shared their hopes, fears and dreams. His work has been featured by the Washington Post, PBS and CNN.

  Read Full Bio
• Stephan Chambers

  Speaker

  Director, The Marshall Institute, London School of Economics

  Stephan Chambers is the inaugural director of the Marshall Institute at LSE and Director of the 100x Impact Accelerator. He serves on the steering groups for the Just Transition Finance Lab and the LSE Grantham Research Institute. At LSE he also sits on the governing board for the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity and is Professor in Practice at the Department of Management and Course Director for the Executive Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship. Before joining the Marshall Institute Stephan Chambers was the Co-Founder of the Skoll World Forum. From 2000 to 2014 he directed the University of Oxford’s MBA and was the founding Director of Oxford University's Executive MBA programme.

  Read Full Bio
• Jeff Skoll

  Speaker

  Founder & Chairman, Jeff Skoll Group

  Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Skoll Foundation Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Participant Media Founder of Capricorn Investment Group Co-founder and GP of the RISE Fund First fulltime employee and President of eBay

  Read Full Bio
• Mary Robinson

  Speaker

  Chair of The Elders, The Elders

  Mary Robinson is a founding member and Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who work together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet. She has served as Chair since 2018, and is a passionate advocate for gender equality, human rights and climate justice. She has addressed the UN Security Council on multiple occasions and has met with world leaders including President Ramaphosa in South Africa, Pope Francis in the Vatican, President Macron in Paris and President Xi Jinping in Beijing. She was the first woman President of Ireland (1990–1997) and is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002). From 2013- 2016, she served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change and then on El Niño and Climate. She was appointed Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin in 2019.

  Read Full Bio