Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili an Economic Policy Expert, she is Senior Economic Adviser of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative and one of co-founders and pioneer directors of Transparency International-TI, the Berlin-based global anti-corruption organization. Ezekwesili is currently also the Founder-CEO of Human Capital África (HCA) working in the education sector across Africa.

Ezekwesili is the Founder-Chairperson of the Board of SPPG (School of Politics Policy and Governance) in Abuja, Nigeria. She was a candidate for office of the President of Nigeria in the 2019 election and the Founder-Chairperson of #FixPolitics Initiative a research-based citizens-led initiative. #FixPolitics envisions “A country where politics is inclusive, the needs of citizens are prioritized, democratic principles are respected, such that good governance is the norm”.

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Ezekwesili was a Vice President of the World Bank- Africa Region in Washington DC between 2007 and 2012. She served in the Government of Nigeria between 2000 and 2007. She was the Minister of Minerals and later of Education. She was a presidential aide and headed the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit which later became the Bureau for Public Procurement- BPP. She was concurrently the pioneer Chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industry and Transparency Initiative- NEITI in which capacity she successfully designed and implemented the global principles for Nigeria. Ezekwesili also worked as the Director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic Strategy Project at the Center for International Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts.

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A Chartered Accountant and Consultant; She holds an MA in International Law and Diplomacy, an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She’s an honorary Doctor of Science degree, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta Nigeria and in 2016 the University of Essex Business School awarded her an honorary Doctorate Degree in Business in recognition of her role in promoting economic and social justice in African countries.

Ezekwesili was recognized as one of Time-100 Most Influential People and by New York Times as one of the 25 Women of Impact, 2015. Albert Einstein Foundations named her one of 100 visionaries featured in the 3D book "Genius:100 Visions of the Future.” Ezekwesili was a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin Germany between 2019 and 2020.

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She has received numerous awards and on boards of numerous local and international organizations such as; Board of Trustees, the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD); Honorary Member, Committee of the Crans Montana African Women’s Forum; Board of Director of the Economic Policy Think Tank, AfriHeritage; Ambassador, International IDEA; Member of the Global Advisory Board for Facebook's Community Leadership Program; Global Board of Governors, NCMG International; Member of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)’s Advisory Group on Gender, Forced Displacement and Protection; Member of the Advisory Board of the Atlantic Dialogues; Independent Director, Board of Bharti Airtel India; Member of Board, Tufts University-Global Leadership Center Boston; International Advisory Board, Tel Aviv University Hartog School of Public Policy, Tel Aviv, Israel; Central European University-School of Public Policy, Budapest Hungary; Global Board, WWF-Switzerland; Commissioner, Global Ocean Commission - United Kingdom; IC Publications; Democracy Ambassador - International IDEA and several others.

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She was decorated with the national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) by her country and was selected as a 2020 Global Leadership Awards Honoree by Vital Voices for her leadership role in the fields of human rights, economic empowerment and political reform.

Dr. Ezekwesili is a Senior Fellow at Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, USA and was also a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin Germany.

Monica Aleman serves as International Program Director for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice at the Ford Foundation. She plays a key role in the foundation’s efforts to reduce gender-based violence, end structural inequalities, and expand the role of philanthropy in global processes. She was previously a senior advisor on the GREJ-I team and a senior program officer on the BUILD team, working to support organizations and networks to become more resilient and durable in their pursuit of social justice and leverage more and better resources for women’s rights organizations in different parts of the world.

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Before this, she was based in the foundation’s East Africa office, where her grantmaking focused on advancing gender equality and women’s rights, increasing the financial resilience of organizations and networks, protecting the rights of women and other minorities, increasing the participation of women in governance structures, and consolidating the infrastructure of the women’s rights movement.

Before joining the foundation in 2011, Monica was executive director of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum and founder of the Indigenous Women’s Fund, a global coordination network of organizations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. She also served as program and policy director at MADRE, an international women’s rights organization and Ford Foundation grantee. In addition, Monica worked as the coordinator of the International Youth Summit for the World Conference Against Racism for the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and has consulted for various organizations, including the United Nations Permanent Forum.

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Monica is also the co-chair of the board of directors for Witness, an international organization that uses technology to protect and defend human rights, and co-chair of the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, a global donor network dedicated to expanding high impact investment in Indigenous organizations and territories and creating a new movement that centers notions of intercultural philanthropy. Her background encompasses expertise in community organizing, social movement building, and participatory monitoring and evaluation. She also has written a number of opinion and issue-oriented articles, primarily on women’s rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples and communities.

Monica received her master’s degree from the Indigenous University, Popayán, Colombia, and her bachelor’s degree in international relations, with a focus on political science and business administration, from the University of Mobile, Latin America Campus at San Marcos, Nicaragua. Her academic experience also includes postgraduate education on the function of the United Nations system from Columbia University and special studies in diplomacy, women’s human rights, human rights, the right to education, ethics, and politics in various institutions of higher learning in Latin America and the United States

Jeff Bradach is the Co-Founder and former Managing Partner of The Bridgespan Group, a global nonprofit organization that collaborates with mission-driven leaders, organizations, and philanthropists to break cycles of poverty and dramatically improve the quality of life for those in need. Bridgespan collaborates with social sector leaders to help scale impact, build leadership, advance philanthropic effectiveness, and accelerate learning, helping them to achieve breakthrough results in addressing society's most important challenges and opportunities.

Based in Bridgespan’s San Francisco office, Jeff consults with leading nonprofits and philanthropists. He writes and speaks extensively on nonprofit strategy, transformative scale, social sector leadership and philanthropy. His publications include: “The Problem with Color-Blind Philanthropy,” (Harvard Business Review, 2020) “Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table,” (Bridgespan.org, 2020) “Achieving Kindergarten Readiness for All Our Children: A Funder’s Guide to Early Childhood Development from Birth to Five,” (Bridgespan.org, 2015) "Transformative Scale: The Future of Growing What Works," (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2014) "Scaling What Works: Implications for Philanthropists, Policymakers, and Nonprofit Leaders," (Bridgespan.org, April 2009) "Delivering on the Promise of Nonprofits," (Harvard Business Review, 2008), and “Should Nonprofits Seek Profits,” (Harvard Business Review, 2004). He is the author of the book, Franchise Organization, Harvard Business School Press.

Jeff has served on numerous nonprofit and for-profit boards, including Giving Tuesday and PolicyLink. He is the former board chair of Independent Sector. Prior to establishing Bridgespan, Jeff taught at Harvard Business School, where he was a member of the Organizational Behavior and the Social Enterprise Initiative faculty. Jeff began his career at Bain & Company. He is a graduate of Stanford University and received his MA in sociology and PhD in organizational behavior from Harvard University.

Stuart Feldman is the Co-CEO and Chief Scientist of Schmidt Futures where he is responsible for the Scientific Knowledge programs, including creating fellowship programs, supporting nascent innovative research projects, and driving new platforms and larger research projects that aim to change the way scientific research is done.

Stuart did his academic work in astrophysics and mathematics and earned his AB at Princeton and his PhD at MIT. Stuart is best known for writing “Make” and other essential tools. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Mathematics by the University of Waterloo. He is former President of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and former member of the board of directors of the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business). He received the 2003 ACM Software System Award. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, and AAAS. He is Board Chair of the Center for the Minorities and Disabled in IT, serves on a number of university advisory boards and National Academy panels, and has served on a wide variety of government advisory committees.

Latanya is the President and CEO of Global Fund for Women and serves on the Board of Directors for Global Fund for Women and Global Fund for Women UK. As a feminist fund, Global Fund for Women offers flexible support to a diverse group of partners – more than 5,000 groups across 175 countries so far – to create meaningful change that will last beyond our lifetimes.

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Previously, she was the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Global, the international arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, with regional and country offices in Africa and Latin America. She quadrupled the size of the program in four years to become one of the most innovative and sustainable global health organizations in the field.

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Latanya worked for eight years as a human rights officer for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and for 10 years with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Ms. Frett served as a delegate to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and continues to fight for the human rights of women.

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An attorney by training, she began her career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Washington, DC. She has received many honors and awards, including two Esteemed Meritorious Honor Awards from the U.S. government and the highest honor in civil service, the Superior Honor Award, from the U.S. State Department. Ms. Frett was one of 30 Foreign Service Officers honored with the Colin Powell Fellowship by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ms. Frett currently serves on the Board of Directors at Oxfam America and Management Sciences for Health and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Ms. Frett is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and author of four U.N. human rights reports and manuals. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and Alum of ICAP. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in government and politics, a master's in public policy, and a JD from the University of Maryland.

Valerie Taylor is the Director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, a leading multidisciplinary science and engineering research center. She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991. She then joined the faculty in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at Northwestern University, where she was a member of the faculty for 11 years.  In 2003, she joined Texas A&M, where she served as head of the computer science and engineering department and senior associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering and a Regents Professor and the Royce E. Wisenbaker Professor in the Department of Computer Science.

Her research is in the area of performance analysis and modeling of parallel, scientific applications.  Currently, she is focused on the areas of performance analysis, power analysis and resiliency.Valerie Taylor is a fellow of IEEE and ACM.