​Puja Abbassi – Communications Manager, Giant Swarm

Puja Abbassi is a communications manager at Giant Swarm, a company specializing in technology infrastructure. Alongside his current professional work, he is also a PhD student at the University of Cologne, where he studies the influence of network position and structure on technology startup and venture capital success. He is also a senior researcher at the Research Center for Global Research and Development Management (GLORAD), where he focuses on the globalization of scientific work and innovation. Prior to this, he worked on a project on IT-assisted security in food supply chains funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Puja has also worked as a visiting researcher for GLORAD at Peking University in China and as a research assistant at the Department of Information Systems and Information Management at the University of Cologne, focusing on social network analysis projects. He has advised and collaborated with startups and companies within the web, mobile, and communications industries and regularly gives talks to or coaches entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial teams in technology innovation. Puja graduated from the University of Cologne with a diploma in information systems and holds a certificate in Chinese studies from the Beijing Language and Culture University.

​Dominik Balthasar – Advisor for Research, Policy Analysis and Dialogue, Institute for Peace and Security Studies

Dominik Balthasar is a researcher, policy analyst and international development consultant, whose work has largely focused on issues pertaining to peace, conflict and state fragility. Currently, Dominik holds a position as an advisor for research and policy analysis at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Previously, he worked with Chatham House, the United States Institute of Peace and the EU Institute for Security Studies. He has held research fellowships with the Crisis States Research Centre and Sciences Po in Paris. Prior to that, Dominik taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the School of Oriental and African Studies, and he has done consulting work for the World Bank, the United Nations and other international development organizations in Asia, Oceania and Africa where he has particularly focused on development in Somalia. After his studies at the University of Freiburg and University of Bordeaux, Dominik earned an MSc in development studies and a PhD in international development from LSE.

​Hannah Bowen – Director, ACTION

Hannah Bowen is the director of ACTION, a global health advocacy partnership hosted by the Washington DC-based grassroots advocacy nonprofit RESULTS. Hannah leads ACTION's Secretariat at RESULTS, which guides and supports the work of partners in 10 countries to influence policy and mobilize resources for fighting poverty and achieving equitable access to health. She was previously director of policy and advocacy for Malaria No More in New York and Washington DC where she led the evaluation and design of communication programs across Africa. Hannah was also a project manager for Africa at the InterMedia Survey Institute in Washington DC and Nairobi where she designed, implemented and analyzed quantitative and qualitative research about media and communications in 14 African countries for clients in the public and nonprofit sectors. Hannah’s regional experience includes serving as a US Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana as well as work on monitoring and evaluation at the World Food Program’s country office in Guinea-Bissau. She holds a masters of public administration in international development from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelors in political science from Yale University.

​Clara Brandi – Senior Researcher, Germany Development Institute

Clara Brandi is a senior researcher at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). As an economist and political scientist, she works on global governance questions and international trade, focusing on sustainable development and the linkages between trade and environmental issues with a special interest on the role of developing countries and rising powers. Currently, she is co-leading a four-year project on international climate policy's potentials and challenges towards a green economy. Clara’s areas of interest and expertise also include international normative theory. She is also a researcher for the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), where she works on cities and urbanization. Clara earned a PhD from the European University Institute, a master's in economics from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität where she was given the Hayek Award for her thesis and a master of philosophy in politics from the University of Oxford where she was a Michael Wills Scholar.

​Han Cheng – Global Justice Fellow, MacMillan Center, Yale University

Han Cheng is interested in the nexus of environmental change, human development, and public policy, with a particular focus on the so-called 'rising powers'. He is currently a PhD candidate in Geography at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, supported by a Cambridge International Scholarship. His research addresses the changing dynamics of global development and emergence of new development ideas, with fieldwork in China, India and Tanzania. At Cambridge, he co-convenes the Geographies of Knowledge research group, and is a Graduate Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Economic Governance. Previously, Han spent four years advising governments, businesses, and civil societies on sustainable development. He started his career as a policy analyst on a Chinese cabinet task force of the 12th Five-Year-Plan with the central planning commission and the Academy of Social Sciences. He has also worked in Washington, DC with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the World Resources Institute. Inspired by GGF, he then moved to The Energy and Resources Institute in India, and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in South Africa, with advisory projects to DFID, WWF and UNEP in Gabon and Kenya. He developed a broad interest in environmental justice and social innovation from earlier experiences with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, the New York Times on China's Three Gorges Dam, and the Northeast Asia Economic Forum in Mongolia as a Young Leader Fellow. Han obtained his MPhil in Geography from Cambridge, and BA in Japanese Studies from Renmin University of China in Beijing. He was until recently a visiting fellow at Yale University's MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, where he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Chancellor Fellowship.

​Yang Du – Lecturer, Department of Diplomacy, University of International Business and Economics

Yang Du is a lecturer in the Department of Diplomacy at the University of International Business and Economics. Her areas of research and teaching include strategic studies, international security, East Asian security, and Chinese foreign policy. Yang has published several articles and essays in academic journals and magazines on crisis management and global governance. From 2009 to 2012, she conducted research on Chinese views of the EU, which was funded by the European Commission under its 7th framework research programme. The aim of this project was to help the EU understand what Chinese people think of the EU and to provide recommendations on how to improve China-EU relations and she presented her findings at the conference “Disaggregating Chinese Perceptions of the EU and the Implications for the EU's China Policy” held by Chatham House in London. Yang conducted additional research as a visiting scholar at the China Policy Institute of the University of Nottingham in 2011. She holds a PhD in international relations from Renmin University of China.

​Iris Ferguson – Independent Consultant, Sydney, Australia

Iris Ferguson currently lives in Sydney consulting on market access and regulatory issues for small and medium Australian enterprises. Prior to that, she worked with the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) where she prioritized ITA’s initiatives by targeting international markets and sectors with high export growth potential. In addition, she worked as an assistant to the chief counsel on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for former Senator Joseph Biden, focusing on treaties, nominations and European affairs. Iris has also worked as an associate in the White House Office of Advance and spent a summer with the Department of State’s Mission to the European Union in Brussels, focusing on political-military affairs. Iris holds a bachelor’s in international relations and anthropology from the University of Arkansas and a master’s in international economics and energy policy from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Mark Fliegauf – Think Productive

Mark T. Fliegauf is Productivity Ninja EMEA for Think Productive, a global consulting & training firm specializing in professional productivity and well-being. Prior, Mark co-founded On Purpose Berlin and lead On Purpose’s offices in London, Paris and Berlin as interim CEO. Mark read political science and contemporary history at the universities of Munich, Tokyo and Harvard. In recognition of his philanthropic leadership, he was named a torchbearer for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

​Ting Guan – PhD Candidate, Zhejiang University

Ting Guan is a PhD candidate at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. Her research focuses on comparative studies of local energy efficiency policy implementation between Germany and China. For 2013 and 2014, she is awarded the German Chancellor Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, through which she conducts research with scholars from the University of Duisburg and Wuppertal Institution, focusing on local energy efficiency policy implementation in Germany. This research will feed into her PhD dissertation. As one of the 20 winners of the 2011 Green Talents competition initiated by the Germany Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Ting was invited to attend the Green Talents International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development hosted in Berlin. Ting holds bachelor’s degrees in urban planning and public administration from Zhejiang University.

​Kathrin Hamm – Associate Operations Officer, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group

Kathrin Hamm works on financial service projects for the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, focusing on small and medium enterprises finance and banking. Prior to that, she was a research fellow at the Harvard Business School, conducting research in the field of organizational behavior in the non-profit sector. Moreover, Kathrin was managing director of the Afghan German Management College, where she was responsible for building up operations across Afghanistan. Under her leadership, the college was distinguished by UNESCO for serving more than 400 Afghan students and focusing on women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship. She also worked on assignments for the Boston Consulting Group, the US House of Representatives and IBM Corporation. She is a European Recovery Program Fellow of the German National Academic Foundation and a case author for the United Nations Development Programme. She has received scholarships from the German National Academic Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the German Ministry of Economy and Technology. Kathrin holds a master’s in public administration from Columbia University and a master’s and a PhD in business economics from Witten-Herdecke University.

​Whitney Haring-Smith – Managing Partner, Anzu Partners

Whitney Haring-Smith is a managing partner at Anzu Partners, a business incubation and investment firm in Washington DC.  Prior to Anzu, he was a Principal for the Boston Consulting Group, working in Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Whitney was also a project leader with Dunia Frontier Consultants, directing engagements with clients in the Middle East. He spent four years providing political risk consulting for corporate and government clients through the Eurasia Group and Oxford Analytica. In 2009 and 2010, he also managed reporting for over 60 international and 100 domestic election observers in Afghanistan for the National Democratic Institute and Democracy International, briefing the US embassy and other stakeholders. Along with the Carter Center and other NGOs, Whitney also observed elections in Sudan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mauritania and El Salvador between 2006 and 2010. He coordinated field disarmament teams in Afghanistan for the United Nations Development Program-Afghanistan’s New Beginnings Program in 2006. Whitney received his DPhil in politics from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science from Yale University.

Tana Johnson – Assistant Professor, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

Tana Johnson is an assistant professor of public policy and political science at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Her research interests include global governance, international organizations, energy and environmental policy and US foreign policy. Tana's work has been included in publications such as International Organization, Journal of Politics, Review of International Organizations and The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency. Her book Organizational Progeny (Oxford Press, 2014) examines the role of international bureaucrats in designing new institutions — the book is the recipient of the International Studies Association’s 2015 Chadwick F. Alger Prize for the best book on international organization and multilateralism. Tana has received research fellowships from the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University and from the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University.  She serves as a faculty advisor and instructor for Duke’s Program on Global Policy and Governance, which places graduate students in internships in international governmental and non-governmental organizations in Geneva, Switzerland.  She received her PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago.

Martin Kaul – Former Policy Advisor to the Speaker on Climate Policy, Green Group, Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany

Martin Kaul is the advisor on climate and energy policy for Foundation 2° - German CEOs for Climate Protection. He previously worked for adelphi in the field of energy, climate and resources. There, he led a project for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment on climate cooperation between Poland and Germany. He also worked on climate diplomacy for the German Federal Foreign Office and the European Commission. Martin has also held a number of positions with the Green Party in Germany. As a policy advisor to the speaker on climate policy of the party’s faction in the Bundestag, he worked on climate change and the German energy transition. As the management’s head of office of the Green Party faction in the state parliament of Berlin, he helped craft political answers to political challenges like climate change and sustainable energy supply in urban contexts. Martin has worked for the party head on a number of international issues, including climate change, energy security and international cooperation. He has published several articles on international affairs, including his master’s thesis, which focused on water-related conflicts and the merging of security and development. Martin holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Dresden University of Technology and the St. Petersburg State University in Russia, as well as a master’s in contemporary war and peace studies from the University of Sussex.

Joachim Knodt – Diplomat, German Federal Foreign Office

Joachim Knodt joined the German Federal Foreign Office in 2011. After his initial training, he became the first desk officer at the newly set up International Cyber Policy Coordination Staff. Thereafter, he joined the Political Department at the German Permanent Representation to the EU, responsible for legal, financial and general aspects of European external relations, including sactions. Before his diplomatic career, Joachim worked for the Google policy team in Berlin, as a consultant for Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and was assistant to the executive board at the Roland Berger Foundation. For over two years, he supported the EU's High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens in Brussels, chaired by Edmund Stoiber. Previously, he was a Carlo-Schmid Fellow working on public administration reform at the OSCE in Sarajevo and worked as a student assistant at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He has also been an election observer in Georgia, Moldova and Guinea-Conakry. Joachim holds master’s degrees in European studies from the College of Europe in Natolin, Poland, and in Public Administration from the University of Potsdam. During his studies, he was awarded a scholarship by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. In 2010, he became a certified foundation manager from the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel. He graduated from the diplomatic academy in 2012 and took part in the Bucerius Summer School 2014.

​Yuge Ma – PhD Candidate, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

Yuge Ma is a PhD candidate at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, conducting fieldwork for her doctoral thesis as an Avantha Fellow at the Aspen Institute and as an associated scholar at the Institute for Economic Growth in India. Her research focuses on comparing the energy and climate policies of India and China, global energy governance and China-India collaboration. She is currently co-organizing a multi-disciplinary workshop called “Juxtapose: Comparing Contemporary China and India.” Yuge is an active journalist and writer who has published articles on Indian democracy, healthcare, development, and the implications of American think tanks for China. Previously, she served as a guest researcher at the Brookings Institution and as a consultant for the India Initiative of Panasonic’s Overseas Research and Development Center. She has also been a presenter and journalist on Tsinghua TV and CCTV. Yuge graduated from Tsinghua University with bachelor’s degrees in building efficiency technology and in law. She spent one year as a graduate student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her most recent book is titled Grow Up in India (Lijiang Publishing House, 2013).

​Zhimin Mao – Assistant Policy Analyst, RAND

Zhimin Mao is an assistant policy analyst at RAND Corporation and a doctoral fellow at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Her research interests include energy, robust decision-making, and economic development. At RAND, she has contributed to a World Bank-funded project to evaluate water and energy infrastructure investments in Africa in the face of global climate change. Her recent publications include a report on fiscal performance and US international influence. Her prior experiences focused on energy and environmental policy. She was an international consultant and a summer intern at the Asian Development Bank. As a research fellow and program specialist at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and Environment, and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Zhimin worked on issues related to US-China collaboration on low carbon development. Her undergraduate honors thesis on supply chain strength and sustainable development was published by The Journal of Cleaner Production. Zhimin holds a master’s in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University.

​Vivek Mohan – Associate, Sidley Austin LLP

Vivek Mohan is privacy counsel at Apple Inc. in California, where he advises on privacy and cybersecurity issues related to Apple’s software and services. Vivek joined Apple from Sidley Austin LLP, where he was an associate in the Privacy, Data Security, and Information Law group, working in Washington, DC and Palo Alto, CA. For five years he was a fellow and later an associate with the Cybersecurity Project at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote and taught on privacy and cybersecurity issues. Vivek has also worked as an attorney at Microsoft's Innovation and Policy Center, at the Chief Privacy Office of GE Corporate (on secondment) and at the New York State Attorney General’s Internet Bureau (under a special appointment). He served as author and co-lead editor for the legal treatise “Cybersecurity: A Practical Guide to the Law of Cyber Risk,” published by PLI in 2015. Vivek received his JD from Columbia Law School and bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Berkeley.

​Eliot Pence – Advisor, Africa Practice, McLarty Associates

Eliot Pence leads the Africa Practice at McLarty Associates, a global corporate strategy firm. Prior to joining McLarty, Eliot served as the director for the leading Africa consulting firm Whitaker Group, where he advised Fortune 100 companies in over 20 African markets and directed the firm’s work in the energy sector. He is the founder of Upstream Analytics, a software start-up focused on helping companies acquire, manage and analyze supply chain data in frontier markets. Previously, Eliot worked as a program officer with the World Bank in Kenya and in the political affairs department of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. He also worked briefly as an advisor to the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students in Asmara and as a consultant for the Federal Government of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. He has written extensively on doing business in frontier markets in outlets including The New York Times, Reuters, CNN, Yahoo! Finance, Financial Times and The National Interest. In 2012, Diplomatic Courier recognized him as one of the “Top 99 under 33” foreign policy professionals. Eliot holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria and a master’s from Yale University.

Ginger Turner – Senior Economist and Vice President, Swiss Reinsurance Company

Ginger Turner is senior economist and vice president in Group Strategy at Swiss Reinsurance Company. She has authored numerous publications on topics in catastrophe risk and insurance, most recently including terrorism insurability, mobile distribution in emerging markets and the global natural disaster underinsurance gap.  During March-April 2015, she was a visiting faculty member at the University of Sydney Business School, teaching a course on innovative design methods for insurance. Prior to joining the Swiss Reinsurance Company, Ginger was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wharton Business School's Risk Center, where she created and managed a 3-year project to investigate the effect of catastrophic flooding on household risk-taking behavior in Pakistan.  Previously, she worked in the World Bank Office of the Chief Economist, Goldman Sachs in London, Actis Capital in Johannesburg and Bain and Company in San Francisco. After university, she helped start a company in India to manufacture and distribute solar lighting in rural areas and has advised other social entrepreneurship ventures. Ginger holds a BA and MS from Stanford University and an MPhil and Dphil from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.  She is a director of the Texas Lyceum, the Friends of Mandela Rhodes Foundation and SMART Family Literacy and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

​Yuzhe Wang – PhD Candidate, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University

Yuzhe Wang is a PhD candidate in public policy at Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management. His research interests include international economics and international macro finance and his doctoral research focuses on international monetary systems. Previously, Yuzhe was a Rajawali fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has actively participated in a number of research projects, including “Taking on the Challenges of International Financial Risks,” which is a key project of the Social Science Foundation of China. He also contributed to the project “The Impacts of AIDS, Household Finance and Public Policy,” which was supported by the Natural Science Fund of China. Yuzhe has also worked as a research assistant at the China Case Center for Public Policy and Management. He was the first-prize winner of China’s National Olympiad in Informatics in Provinces in 2004 and was elected vice president of the Project Management Association of Tsinghua University. Yuzhe holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Tsinghua University and a bachelor’s in economics from Peking University.

Fabian Wigand – Consultant, Energy and Climate Policy, Ecofys

Fabian Wigand works at the clean energy consultancy Ecofys where he consults ministries, the European Commission and international development institutions on energy and climate policy. His current work focuses on the reform of the German Renewable Energy Act, energy auctions and the preparation of the German G7 presidency focusing on sustainable energy security. Previously, Fabian was a senior analyst at the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii), an international industrial initiative dedicated to create a market for renewable energy in North Africa and the Middle East. At Dii, he advised governments, firms and international organisations on energy policy, energy markets, regulation and project finance. Besides his work, Fabian is a member of the Think Tank 30 network of the German Club of Rome. He also conducted research on global management practices for a joint project of the London School of Economics and Stanford University. Fabian holds a bachelor’s in international politics and history from Jacobs University and a master’s in international political economy from the London School of Economics.

​Zev Winkelman – Associate Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation

Zev Winkelman is an associate policy researcher at RAND Corporation in Washington, DC. His areas of research include international cooperation regarding cyber security, nuclear security and counterterrorism and he has conducted research in Russia, Germany, Israel and China. In addition to his experience with global security research, Zev has several years of experience in the global financial markets, working on risk management in currency trading operations and high frequency equities trading strategies. He received his master’s in forensic computing and counterterrorism from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering as well as general studies from the University of Michigan. Zev holds a PhD from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation focused on the use of structured analytic techniques to improve policy analysis, using debates on the balance between civil liberties and security as a case study.

​Jiajun Xu – PhD Candidate, University of Oxford

Jiajun Xu is a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on sustainable development financing and governance of multilateral development institutions. She is also a researcher at the Global Economic Governance Program at Oxford University and a visiting scholar at the International Poverty Reduction Center in China. She has published several journal articles and book chapters on topics including China’s influence on international development, governance of the World Bank as well as international rules and norms of development finance. Jiajun was a junior research specialist at the United Nations’ High-Level Panel Secretariat on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. She co-edited a special edition of Oxford University’s peer-reviewed journal St Antony’s International Review titled International Financial Institutions in an Age of Crisis. Moreover, she has conducted consultancy work on debt sustainability at the World Bank and was an intern at the Development Center of the OECD. Jiajun also founded and was the president of China Bridges: Association for International Development at Tsinghua University. Jiajun holds a master’s degree in international development from Tsinghua University.

Yi Shen – Lecturer, Department of International Politics, Fudan University

Yi Shen is a lecturer in the Department of International Politics at Fudan University in Shanghai. He heads the university’s newly established Center for Media Revolution and Governance and also conducts research on cyber-related issues. Since 2009, Yi has focused on the interaction between information technology and diplomacy with an emphasis on the latest developments in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, China, Libya and other countries. Yi has written numerous short commentary pieces for newspapers, including The Global Times and Wen Hui. He has also published several academic papers analyzing America’s cyber space strategy. Yi holds a PhD in international politics from Fudan University.