Diego Piacentini
Commissioner for Digital Transformation Italian Government , Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers
General Manager Apple Europe (1987-1999)
Sr VP International Consumer Business Amazon.com (2000-2016)
Willemien Bax is Head of the OECD Forum, she has over 30 years of experience in working with governments, as well as non-governmental organisations and the private sector. Prior to joining the OECD, Willemien worked with the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC) where she oversaw BEUC’s public affairs and media relations strategies in a number of public policy areas ranging from transparency and governance to food, environment, health, economic and legal affairs. She managed a training programme financed by the European Commission, for all consumer organisations in the EU, as well as potential EU-candidate countries. The training focused on giving consumer organisations the tools to develop effective public affairs and communication strategies. In her capacity as European Chair of the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, she contributed to debates on major international public policy issues such as financial regulation, innovation and energy efficiency.
Bhaskar Chakravorti
Dean, Global Business and Founding Executive Director, The Fletcher School, Tufts University
Innovation, Inclusive Growth, Digital Economy, Global Business
Sophie is the founder of the iTunes new and noteworthy, The Edtech Podcast. The mission of The Edtech Podcast is to improve the dialogue between ‘ed’ and ‘tech’ for better innovation, through storytelling. The podcast is downloaded 1500+ times a week, from up to 109 countries with the UK, US & Aus in the top 3. Sophie is a mentor and advisor within the edtech community, and is particularly passionate about female entrepreneurship.
Pascal Saint-Amans took on his duties as Director of the Center for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD on 1 February 2012. Mr. Saint-Amans, a French national, joined the OECD in September 2007 as Head of the International Co-operation and Tax Competition Division in the CTPA. He played a key role in the advancement of the OECD tax transparency agenda in the context of the G20. In October 2009 he was appointed Head of the Global Forum Division, created to service the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, a programme with the participation of over 100 countries.
Mr. Saint-Amans graduated from the National School of Administration (ENA) in 1996, and was an official in the French Ministry for Finance for nearly a decade. He held various positions within the Treasury, including heading the supervision of the EU work on direct taxes and overseeing legislation and policy on wealth tax and mergers and spin offs. He was also the head of tax treaty negotiations and mutual agreement procedures. In this capacity, he participated in the OECD Working Party No. 1 of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs as the delegate for France before being elected Chair of WP1 in 2005. He was also a member of the UN Group of Experts on International Co-operation in Tax Matters, becoming a “rapporteur” in 2006. Before leaving government service, he was Deputy Director in charge of litigation at the Direction Générale des Impôts.
Mr. Saint-Amans also served as Financial Director of the Energy Regulation Committee between 1999 and 2002 and was responsible for the introduction of new electricity tariffs.
Having earned a degree in history, Mr. Saint-Amans also received a degree from the Institut d’études politiques of Paris.
Mark Pearson is Deputy Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Prior to 2014, he was Head of the Health Division where he helped countries to improve their health systems by providing internationally comparable data, state-of-the-art analysis and appropriate policy recommendations on a wide range of health policies. Major current work of the Division is on the economics of preventing obesity; comparisons of the prices of health care goods and services; assessing long-term care policies; trends in health spending; expanding health coverage; co-ordination of care; pay-for-performance; use of evidence in health care; the migration of the health-care workforce; health care quality indicators; measuring health care outcomes, outputs and inputs; and health and ICTs. Key publications resulting from the work he has managed include OECD Health at a Glance and Achieving Better Value for Money in Health Care, as well as The Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat.
Before moving to Paris, he was employed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, and he has been a consultant for the World Bank, the IMF and the European Commission.
Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
As a key member of the OECD Senior Management team, Mr. Schleicher supports the Secretary-General’s strategy to produce analysis and policy advice that advances economic growth and social progress. He promotes the work of the Directorate for Education and Skills on a global stage and fosters co-operation both within and outside the OECD. In addition to policy and country reviews, the work of the Directorate includes the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems (INES).
Before joining the OECD, Mr. Schleicher was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement”. He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg.
Jacques van den Broek is the CEO and Chair of the Executive Board of Randstad, the global leader in HR services industry. After graduating in law, Jacques held a management position with an international trading company until he joined Randstad as a branch manager. Appointments followed as Regional Director in the Netherlands and, subsequently, as Marketing Director Randstad Europe. In 2002, he moved to Capac Inhouse Services as Managing Director, also taking on responsibility for Randstad in Denmark and Switzerland. Jacques van den Broek is responsible for France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal, as well as Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). In addition, he is responsible for Business Concept Development and Public Affairs.
Lamia Kamal-Chaoui is the Director of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE). She supports the Secretary-General in achieving the OECD’s mission to advance economic growth and social progress as well as contributing to other global agendas such as the G20, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the implementation of the SDGs. Ms Kamal-Chaoui has held several senior positions at the OECD since 1998 and was appointed Director of the CFE in 2016. She holds a Master’s Degree in Macroeconomics from the University of Paris Dauphine and a Master’s Degree in Foreign Languages and History from the University of Paris Diderot.
journalist, blogger, writer
Michael W. Hodin, Ph.D. is CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging, Managing Partner at High Lantern Group, and a Fellow at Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College. He has spoken internationally on the topic of aging, including at G20, APEC, Davos, and the World Knowledge Forum (WKF). He is also a blogger on Medium.
From 1976-80, Mike was Legislative Assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. During this period he was also a Visiting Scholar at Brookings Institution, on U.S. Foreign Economic Policy. He was a senior executive at Pfizer, Inc. for 30 years, where he created and then led its International Public Affairs and Public Policy operations and served on Management Boards for a number of its businesses.
Mike is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and from 2010-2013, was Adjunct Senior Fellow with a focus on population aging. In 2013, Mike was invited by then-Committee Chairman Bill Nelson (D-FL) to lead a Members’ Roundtable with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Mike was also the recipient of the 2012 Fred D. Thompson Award from the American Federation for Aging Research. He sits on the Boards of the Foreign Policy Association, Business Council for International Understanding, NYC Blood Center, American Skin Association, American Federation for Aging Research and Emigrant Savings Bank, where he is Chairman of its compensation committee. Mike was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Ageing. And he sits on the Advisory Board for the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging.
Mike holds a BA, cum laude, Cornell University, M.Sc.in International Relations from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and M.Phil and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.
Silvana is the President and Founder of Women Political Leaders (WPL), the worldwide network of women Politicians. WPL is an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit foundation that aims to increase both the number and influence of women in political leadership. Silvana served as Vice-President of the European Parliament (2009-2011) and Member of the European Parliament (2004-2014). Before her time in politics, she founded and ran a public affairs consultancy in Brussels, which later merged with a larger US firm. She also worked as Senior Special Advisor for EY and as Senior Policy Advisor for GPLUS Europe. In addition to her work for WPL, Silvana serves on the board of the Council of Women World Leaders, the network of female Presidents and Prime Ministers. She is also a member of the European Leadership Network (ELN), a Board Director of the Social Progress Imperative and member of the Global Advisory Network of Apolitical Academy Global. Since 2016, Silvana has been representing the European Union in the Executive Committee of W20, an official engagement group of the G20. In 2018 and 2019, she was ranked as one of the 100 most influential persons in gender equality by Apolitical. Silvana is a Young Global Leader Alumni of the World Economic Forum. She lives in Brussels, Belgium with her three kids and their Irish father.
Yuko Harayama
Executive Member, Council for Science, Technology and Innovation of the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
Carlos Santiso
Corporate Director, Governance Practice, Digital Innovation in Government , Development Bank of Latin America
Carlos Santiso has a long career working on improving lives in fragile states and emerging economies in Africa and the Americas by furthering democracy, strengthening governance and fighting corruption. In the past two decades, he has worked in over two dozen countries in various capacities in multilateral development banks, bilateral aid agencies, and policy think tanks. He is the Director for Digital Innovation in Government at the Development Bank of Latin America, based in Colombia. He previously headed the Innovation for Citizen Services Division of the Inter-American Development, which he joined in 2011 to manage the Institutional Capacity of the State Division; as Sector Manager for Governance at the African Development Bank between 2007 and 2011, as governance adviser to the British government aid agency between 2002 and 2007 and as senior operations officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance between 1996 and 2000. He started his career as an adviser at the French Prime Minister’s Office between 1995 and 1996. He is a founding member of the board of adviser of the Centre for Democratic Governance in Burkina Faso. Carlos holds Ph.D. in comparative political economy from Johns Hopkins University (2006), a master in international economic policy from Columbia University (1995) and a master in public policy from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris (1993). He has written extensively on digital government, democratic governance, development finance and foreign aid.