Sir Paul Collier is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research - CEPR, and Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, as well as a Professeur invité at Sciences Po and a Director of the International Growth Centre. He was formerly the senior advisor to Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa, and was Director of the Development Research group at the World Bank from 1998 to 2003 . He researches the causes and consequences of civil war, the effects of aid, and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies. He is the author of The Bottom Billion (Oxford University Press, 2007) which won several prizes, and his latest book is The Future of Capitalism: Facing The New Anxieties (2018). In 2014, Paul received a knighthood for services to promoting research and policy change in Africa.

Dionísio Babo Soares is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of East Timor 

Francisco Seixas da Costa is the chairman of the Lisbon Club.  He is a non-executive Member of the Board of Jerónimo Martins SGPS and of Mota Engil Africa NV and consultant of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He was Ambassador at UN, OSCE, UNESCO, Brazil and France. He was Secretary of State for European Affairs (1995-2001) and Executive Director of the North-South Centre (2013-2014). Since 2013 he is member of the Consultative Council of the School of Economic (University of Coimbra) and of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (Lisbon Nova University). He lectures at University Autónoma of Lisbon and belongs to the Scientific Council of Política Internacional and of Janus - Journal of International Relations. He authored several books and articles on international relations and security and he is columnist in two daily newspapers. He got a BA on Political and Social Sciences from the Technical University of Lisbon.

Xanana Gusmão led the Timorese resistance that secured independence for his people and became the first President of Timor-Leste. In 1981, he was elected leader of the FALINTIL (National Liberation Armed Forces of Timor-Leste). He was captured and imprisoned in Indonesia from 1992 to 1999. On 30 August 1999, the Timorese people voting in a UN-sponsored referendum overwhelmingly rejected the autonomy proposal put forth by Indonesia, signaling the end of the Indonesian occupation and the beginning of a UN transitional process. In 2002 Xanana Gusmão was elected as the first President of the Republic since the Restoration of Independence and served in this position until May 2007. As Prime Minister from 2007 to 2015, Xanana Gusmão led his people towards peace and built a strong foundation for a successful State and nation. He served as Minister for Planning and Strategic Investment and was appointed as the chief Negotiator for the conciliation of the maritime boundary between Timor-Leste and Australia. The members of the g7+ group appointed him as the g7+ Eminent Person to help in promoting Peace through dialogue and reconciliation.

Jorge Moreira da Silva is the Director of the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate since November 2016. He has served as Visiting Full Professor at the Lisbon University and Chairman of the Lisbon-based think-tank Platform for a Sustainable Growth.  He was Vice President of the Executive Board of Partido Social Democrata – PSD (2010-2016) and Minister of Environment, Energy and Spatial Planning (2013-2015). He also held various positions at the UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy (2009-2012), was Senior Advisor to the President of Portugal (2006-2009), Secretary of State for Science and Higher Education and Secretary of State for Environment and Spatial Planning (2003-2005). He served as a Member of the European Parliament and standing draftsman on climate change from 1999 to 2003. He graduated from the University of Porto with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds a postgraduate degree in Senior Management from the Navarra University, Spain.

Luís Amado is the Chairman of the General and Supervisory Board of EDP, and he was until 2017 the Chairman of the Bank Banif.Since the 1990s he held several positions in the Portuguese Government, including Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (1995-1997 and 1999-2002), Minister of Defence (2005-2006) and Minister of State and Foreign Affairs (2006-2011). As part of his political activity, he was representative at the Regional Assembly of Madeira and member of the Portuguese Parliament. He graduated in Economics at the Technical University of Lisbon. Luis Amado was international consultant, adviser to the National Defence Institute and Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He is also Visiting Professor at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas (ISCSP) and at the Faculty of Economics in the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Bárbara Reis has been a journalist of Público since 1989. She worked in the International and Society sections of this Portuguese newspaper, was a correspondent in New York (1995-2000) and spent so many hours in the United Nations’ corridors because of the negotiations between Portugal and Indonesia about East Timor, that she ended up landing in Dili with a UN passport. In Timor (2000-2002), she joined the UNTAET mission and was a spokesman for Sérgio Vieira de Mello. She returned to Público in 2002, was an editor for the Culture section (2002-2007), collaborated in the release of the daily supplement P2 (2007-2008) and was a management executive. She was the director of Público from 2009 to 2016 and is currently a chief editor.

Adebayo Olukoshi is the Director for Africa and West Asia of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), in Addis Ababa. Hehas more than 35 years of experience in the area of international relations, governance and human rights, both in the academic sector and in intergovernmental institutions. Olukoshi was a member of the African Union Assessment Panel and Chair of the Board of several Think Tanks, including European Centre for Development Policy Management and Open Society Initiative for West Africa. He also previously served as Director of the UN African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, Executive Director of the Africa Governance Institute (AGI), Executive Secretary of the Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Director of Research at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA); and Research Programme Coordinator of the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala. He has published extensively on the politics of economic relations, governance and development. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Leeds.

Audrey Gaughran is the Senior Director for Regional Programmes of the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI), since January 2018. She oversees the organization’s work across more than 20 resource rich countries, including providing advice to governments, working with civil society partners and engaging with investors. She is also involved in a number of global initiatives on governance and transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.   Prior to this she work at Amnesty International where she held a variety of roles including Deputy Director for Business and Human Rights, Africa Director and Senior Director of Research. She also worked with the United Nations in southern Africa and for environmental organizations in Asia.
Originally trained as a journalist at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland, Audrey also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, a post-graduate diploma in environmental policy and a master’s degree in human rights from Birkbeck Law School, University of London.

Helena Freitas is Full Professor of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra since 2003, and holds the UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity and Conservation for Sustainable Development since 2014. She was Vice-Dean of the University of Coimbra between 2011 and 2015. She was deputy and vice-president of the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party (Oct. 2015 – Mar. 2016) and Coordinator of the National Program for Territorial Cohesion (Mar. 2016 – Jul. 2017). She was also President of the League for the Protection of Nature (1999-2002), founder and President of the Portuguese Society of Ecology (2004-2013) and Vice-President of the European Society of Ecology (2009-2012). She is currently Coordinator of the Center for Functional Ecology - science for people and the planet,  Scientific Coordinator of FitoLab - Phytosanitary Laboratory of the Pedro Nunes Institute, and is part of the Scientific Council of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Coimbra. Helena Freitas received her PhD in Ecology from the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with the University of Bielefeld, Germany (1993) and did postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, USA (1994-1996).

Sir John Grant is the Vice President for International Government Affairs of Anadarko (Oil & Gas company), since October 2016. He joined BHP Billiton in London in 2007 in a government relations role after a 30-year career in the British Foreign Service, including roles as Ambassador in Stockholm and the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. He was appointed to the Executive Committee of BG Group in 2009, with responsibility for government affairs, corporate responsibility and communications. He retired from BG in 2015. Mr. Grant has a degree in modern languages from Cambridge University.

Vannak Chhun is Diretor of the ASEAN Study Center, University of Cambodia, and Professor of Economics, Finance, investment and entrepreneurship, Environmental Governance and Sustainable Development at the University of Cambodia (the UC), the Royal University of Laws and Economics (RULE), and the National University of Management (NUM). He is the founder and CEO of International Investment Management Consulting (IIMC). He is advisor of the National Authority for the Prohibition of Chemical, Nuclear, Biological and Radiological Weapons, Ministry of Defense, and Senior Advisor of the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia. He was Secretary-General of National Council on Green Growth, Ministry of Environment (2011-2014). He is Vice President and member of the Board of Trustees of the APRSCP (Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production) and the Seoul Peace Prize Nominator. He has Ph.D degrees in Economics (Paris, 2004), International Relations and Diplomacy (London, 2005) and Juridical Science (Paris, 2006)..

Waliullah Zadran is the Deputy Minister - policy and programs for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan. He has served the government in various positions, including special assistant to Commission of natural resources and environment of house of people, legal expert/advisor for the Afghanistan Petroleum Authority and for the Ministry of urban development and housing, and several functions in the Ministry of mines and petroleum, including legal director. During the last 2 years, he has contributed significantly in developing of new legal framework for extractive sector, and the mechanism for obtaining dues and outstanding payments from contractors, as well as the review and finalization of 14 large scale mining/oil and gas projects. Mr. Zadran has a bachelor degree in Law and master degree in International Trade and Investment Laws from India.

António Pereira Neves is journalist in the Lusa news agency since 1998 and is currently dedicated to environmental, science and technology related issues. He got a Master in Communication Sciences by the Nova Lisbon University. He was born in Cascais in 1976.

Francis Kai-Kaiis the Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone, co-Chair of theInternational Dialogue on Statebuilding and Peacebuilding, and Chair of theg7+Group of Fragile and Conflict Affected states. He was Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, and previously spent 12 years as a senior United Nations staff member, including Chief of Civil Affairs/Peace Consolidation Services in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) (2016-2018), supporting that country’s integrity in natural resources management and economic governance, local governance and peacebuilding; Field Crisis Adviser/ Operation Manager in the United Nations Mission for Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER) (2014-2015); and Chief of the United Nations Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Section of UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) (2005 to 2007). He coordinated the preparation of Sierra Leone’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and set up the Development Assistance Coordination Office in post war Sierra Leone. He served as Executive Secretary of the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration from 1999 to 2004. He holds a B.A. (Hons) degree from the University of Sierra Leone, and Master of Science and doctorate degrees in agricultural economics and development from universities in the United Kingdom and Germany, respectively.  

José Ramos-Horta received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, for his continuous efforts to liberate the Timorese people from the Indonesia oppression and achieve peace in his country. He was President of East Timor from 2007 to 2012, and also Prime-Minister (2006-2007) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2002-2006). He was the United Nations' Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) from 2013 to 2019. He is the author of the book Words of Hope in Troubled Times, 2007.

Ana Santos Pinto is the Secretary of State of National Defence since October 2018. She is Assistant Professor of the Department of Political Studies – NOVA University of Lisbon, Research Fellow at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA) and Research Fellow in the National Defense Institute (Portugal). Previously, she worked as Research Consultant to the UN Alliance of Civilizations (2008-2010), Advisor of the Ministry of National Defense of Portugal (2006-2009) and Research Assistant in the Portuguese Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Lisbon (2001-2003). She holds a PhD on International Relations and develops her research on identity in International Politics and Security issues, mainly regarding European Union, Middle East and North Africa.