Cornelius Fleischhaker is a senior economist with the World Bank, covering macroeconomics and public finance in Angola and Sao Tome and Principe. In this role he leads budget support operations in both countries as well as analytical work on government expenditures, debt sustainability and other macroeconomic and public finance issues.

Miriam Kosmehl has been Senior Expert in the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Europe’s Future Program since 2017 working on the Eastern Partnership region from Berlin. Prior to that, she headed the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung’s office for Ukraine and Belarus 2012-2017. Previous positions include postings in Poland (OSCE ODIHR), Russia and Central Asia (Deutsche Bank Moscow and GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). Kosmehl studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau and Utrecht and holds a Second Legal State Examination of the District Court of Düsseldorf.

Shahin Vallée is head of DGAP’s Geo-Economics Program. Prior to that, he was a senior fellow in DGAP’s Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies.

Simon Rosenberg is founder and president of NDN/New Policy Institute, a center-left think tank in Washington, DC. Simon has been a leader in efforts to modernize the center-left in American politics over the past generation, working on a broad range of issues from global economic policy to America's changing demography. He is a frequent political commentator on cable news, and his work and ideas are often featured in the country's leading newspapers, magazines and websites.

Shelly Banjo is the New York Bureau Chief of Bloomberg, overseeing more than 1,100 journalists at the company’s world headquarters, as well as Bloomberg’s news coverage of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. She also sits on Bloomberg’s equality task force.

Previously, she was a Senior Writer on Bloomberg’s Tech team in New York and Hong Kong where she wrote extensively about the US-China tech war, Hong Kong anti-government protests, and TikTok -- the subject of her podcast "Foundering: The TikTok Story." She was also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

Miguel Ángel González was elected on February 8, 2022 as the new president of the Ecuadorian Business Committee (CEE) for the period 2022-2023. González, who is also president of the Ecuadorian Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce, is a 42-year-old businessman from Guayaquil who started in the business world in the mass consumption sector, in the commercial area and in the food and beverage distribution business.

Alberto Nacer is Vice President Soft Merchandiser at StoneX Group’s subsidiary, StoneX Commodity Solutions, managing their cocoa trading business since 2017, focusing on the commercialization of cocoa beans and cocoa products in the US and Asia.

Salvador Villanueva is a managing director responsible for Latin America Structuring based in New York.

Salvador has 15 years of finance experience at Goldman Sachs most lately in the structured credit space including in infrastructure, natural resources and ESG.

Andrés Wierdak received his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in Indiana and his Master’s degree in business administration from the IDE Business School in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He has more than 18 years of experience in project management in both the public and private sectors in areas such as supply chain, production, purchasing and operations. Currently, he serves as vice minister of mines in the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Ecuador.