Francis Kai-Kai Chairs the g7+ and is Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone. He Co-chairs the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding. He was Permanent Representative to the UN. At the UN, he was Chief of Civil Affairs and Peace Consolidation of UNMIL, Liberia, Field Operation Manager and Crisis Adviser of UN Mission for Emergency Ebola Response, Chief of Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of UNMIS, Sudan. Francis Kai-Kai coordinated Sierra Leone’s first Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and was Executive Secretary of the National Committee of DDR.
Twitter | @kaikaifm

Pekka Haavisto is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland. He was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 1995 and returned to Parliament in 2007. From 1995 to 1999, he served as Minister of Development and the Environment and in 2013–2014 was Minister for International Development. In 1993–1995 and 2018–2019, he was Party Leader of the Greens in Finland. Peeka Haavisto served several years as a member of the Helsinki City Council. He stood as a presidential candidate in Finland in 2012 and in 2018.

Twitter | @Haavisto

João Ribeiro de Almeida is the President of Camões, I.P., the Institute for Cooperation and Portuguese Language. He entered the diplomatic career in 1990, having served in various positions in Portugal and abroad. He was Head of Office of the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of the XVII Constitutional Government. João Ribeiro de Almeida served as Ambassador of Portugal in Bogotá, Colombia and, previously to his current position, served as Ambassador of Portugal in Buenos Aires.

David Cameron served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 2010 until July 2016, leading first a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, and from May 2015, a Conservative majority government. He was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005 and held this position for over a decade.

Among his current roles, David serves as President of Alzheimer’s Research UK; Chair of Patrons at National Citizen Service and having chaired the LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, he continues to promote international development by co-chairing the Council on State Fragility and serving on the Board of the ONE campaign.

Twitter | @David_Cameron

Luísa Meireles is Chief Editor of LUSA, the Portuguese News Agency. She began her career in journalism in 1989 in the weekly newspaper Expresso, having been International Editor and Writer-at-Large at the Political Section, with a focus in European and defence affairs. She covered as a special envoy the end of the USSR as well as the Centre and East European political transitions and the Balkan wars. Luísa is Auditor of the Institute of National Defence, Member of Eurodefense-Portugal, of Euromed-IHEDN and Member of the Board of the Club of Lisbon.

Twitter | @LuisaMeirelesVS

Luís Amado is the Chairman of the General and Supervisory Board of Electricity of Portugal (EDP). He served as Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence and Minister of State and Foreign Affairs. He was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament and a Deputy of the Regional Assembly of Madeira. Luís Amado was Visiting Professor at Georgetown University. He was Chairman of the Banif Bank. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and was the first President of the Club of Lisbon.

Xanana Gusmão is Eminent Person of the g7+. He led the resistance in Timor-Leste until Independence. He was captured and jailed in Indonesia from 1992-1999. After the 1999 referendum organised by the UN, with the victory of the yes to Independence, he was elected in 2002 the first President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and served until May 2007. Xanana Gusmão served as Prime Minister from 2007-2015. He was also Minister for Planning and Strategic Investment, having led the negotiations with Australia for the consolidation of the maritime borders.

Jorge Moreira da Silva is Director of the Development Co-operation Directorate of OECD. He was Senior Officer at the UNDP Bureau on Development Policy. He served as Secretary of State for Science and Higher Education, Secretary of State for Environment and Spatial Planning and Minister of Environment, Energy and Spatial Planning. Senior Advisor to the President of Portugal he was Member of the Portuguese and the European Parliaments – here he authored the Report on Emissions Trading Directive, 2003. He is Founder and Chairman of the Platform for Sustainable Growth.

Twitter | @jmoreiradasilva

Adela Raz, is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations and the United States. Previously she was Chief of Staff of the President and Deputy Minister for Economic Cooperation. Adela Raz possesses 11 years of extensive experience in the fields of political and economic analysis, policy development, media and communication and governance, with various governmental and non-governmental positions, in local and international organisations.

Twitter | @AdelaRaz

Bárbara Reis is Editor-at-Large of the newspaper Público, having been Culture Editor and Director. She began her career in the weekly newspaper Expresso and has been with Público since its inception in 1989, having worked in several sections, from the International to the Society fields. Bárbara Reis was a correspondent in New York for five years and worked for two years in post-independent East Timor, beginning by teaching journalists and working lastly as spokesperson to the United Nations Mission.

Twitter | @breis200

Jorge Thompson Araujo is Practice Manager for Macroeconomics (Latin America and the Caribbean) of the World Bank, having previously served as economic adviser in the Office of the Vice President. Since 1996 he held various World Bank positions in the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions, besides various corporate assignments. Prior to joining the Bank, Jorge Araújo was an associate professor of economics at Universidade de Brasília.

Clara Brandi is Head of Programme Transformation of Economic and Social Systems at the German Development Institute in Berlin. She was a University lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen, having previously worked at the German Advisory Council on Global Environmental Change. Clara Brandi also worked in the Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights of the WHO and the Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment of ILO, in Geneva.

Twitter | @ClaraBrandi

Olivier Kamitatu Etsu is, since 2007, Founder and President of the Political Party Alliance for the Renewal of the Congo (ARC), of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From 2003 to 2007, he was Member of the Transitional Parliament, having served as its President. Olivier Kamitatu Etsu was Minister of Planning in more than one Government. He was President of the Liberal African Network, and he is Vice-President of the Liberal International.

Twitter | @OlivierKamitatu

Paulo Gomes is a Founder and Co-Chairman of the AfroChampions Initiative. He has extensive professional experience in the public and private sectors in Africa and Asia. He Chairs Orango Investment Corporation, is Founder of Constelor Holdings and Co-Founder of New African Capital Partners. He serves on the Board of the AU & Africa CDC “COVID-19 Response Fund”. He is a founding member of the Green Climate Finance Fund, set up by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He is a member of the BioGuinea Foundation for Guinea-Bissau.

Twitter | @pgomesKA

Ricardo Alexandre is Deputy Director and International Affairs Editor of radio TSF. He was Editor of International Affairs at the Portuguese Radio and Television (RTP) and Deputy-Director of Information of its radio, Antena1, having presented the weekly programme Visão Global. He was Vice-President of the Deontological Council of the Journalists’ Syndicate. He is a researcher at the Centre for International Studies of ISCTE-IUL and at Observare of Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. He was a member of Mediane, a European programme for fostering diversity and inclusiveness in the media.

Olivier Bailly is Head of the EU Task Force on vaccine strategy. In the European Commission, he was Head of Office of the Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, spokesperson for economic affairs, assistant at the General Secretariat of the Commission for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy, coordinator for Justice and Internal Affairs and for the “legislative quality”. Previously, Olivier Bailly worked at the Office of the French European Affairs Minister and served at the French Representation in the European Commission.

Twitter | @OlivierBaillyEU

Wilhelmina Jallah is Minister of Health of Liberia. Previously, she was Founder, CEO and Medical Director for six years at the Hope for Women International Medical Center Liberia. Over the past decade, she worked for five years at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Liberia, where she served as Acting Head and Educator for the Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department and Director for the Gynaecological Cancer Program. Wilhelmina Jallah is a Fellow of the Liberia College of Physicians and a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians.

Alex de Jonquières is Director of Health Systems & Immunisation Strengthening at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He oversees strategies for strengthening health systems and reach ‘zero-dose children’ and missed communities with immunisation, with tailor-made approaches in fragile contexts. He leads sub-teams working in supply chain strengthening, demand generation, community engagement, gender and data strengthening. Alex de Jonquières also helps lead Gavi’s COVID-19 response to maintain, restore and strengthen routine immunisation and plan and support equitable vaccine delivery.

Céline Mias is currently EU Representative and Director of CARE International’s EU Office in Brussels, and Vice-President of CONCORD, a platform of NGDOs. She has over 20 years of experience in humanitarian and development NGO programmes and in advocacy roles in Europe, Africa and Asia, including nine years in country programmes and over eleven years in Brussels. After taking an active role for two years in the Policy Direction Committee, Céline Mias was elected to the Board of CONCORD in June 2018.

Twitter | @CelineMias1

Helena Tecedeiro is Executive Editor of the daily newspaper Diário de Notícias since May 2018. She entered the newspaper in 2003 having served as Assistant Editor and Editor of the International Section, also being Assistant Executive Editor of the International, Arts and Online sections. Her current interest is on International Policy, with a focus on the US, where she did the coverage of the ceremony of inauguration of Donald Trump, and the unfolding of the first year of his presidential term.

Twitter | @helenatecedeiro

Francisco Seixas da Costa is President of the Club of Lisbon. He is a non-executive Director of Jerónimo Martins SGPS and Mota-Engil Africa NV and a consultant of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He was Ambassador to the UN, OSCE, UNESCO, Brazil and France. He was Secretary of State for European Affairs and Executive Director of the North-South Center of the Council of Europe. He belongs to the Advisory Boards of Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, and Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Twitter | @seixasdacosta

Hélder da Costa is General Secretary of the g7+, a platform of 20 fragile and conflict-affected countries based in Dili, East Timor. He also chairs the g7+ European Hub, which is seated in Lisbon. Prior to his current positions, Hélder da Costa was a Senior Advisor on Aid Effectiveness at the East Timor Ministry of Finance, from 2008 to 2013 and represented the g7+ in the Steering Committee of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation from 2012 to 2014.

Twitter | @helcosta2323

Augusto Santos Silva is the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs of Portugal. Previously he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of National Defence, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Minister of Education, Minister of Culture and Secretary of State of Educational Administration. Augusto Santos Silva was elected twice as a Member of Parliament. He is a Full Professor at Faculdade de Economia of Universidade do Porto, where he also served as Pro-Rector.