Agenda Setting Conference 2015

The Agenda Setting Network links people in their areas of expertise in order to exchange ideas and benefit from mutual experience and professional know-how. Members of the network meet once a year at the International Agenda Setting Conference. Members of the network propose topics for discussion, or as case studies, while Media Tenor ensures the provision of experts and scientific data in the fields discussed.

Dr. Mark Esposito

Dr. Mark Esposito

Senior Associate

University of Cambridge 

United Kingdom

Dr. Mark Esposito

Mark Esposito is an Associate Professor of Business & Society at Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France. He is an appointed Senior Associate for the University of Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership and a Research Fellow for the Cambridge Center for Economic and Public Policy.

He serves as Instructor at Harvard Extension School, where he teaches Systems Thinking, Complexity Management and Modern Dilemmas for the Extension and Summer Schools and serves as Institutes Council Co-Leader, at the Microeconomics of Competitiveness program (MOC) developed at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, at Harvard Business School.

Mark is the Founding Director of the Lab-Center for Competitiveness, a think tank affiliated with the MOC network of Professor Michael E. Porter at Harvard Business School, which purports to study competitiveness as a bottom up approach towards the creation of equality in society. Through the Lab-Center, Mark has worked extensively, on the topic of creation of prosperity and sustainable business practices within large and complex stakeholders constituencies. His Lab comprises today 12 renowned Fellows and a busy agenda of research activities, across industries and regions.

Mark consults in the area of Corporate Sustainability, Complexity and Competitiveness worldwide, including advising to the United Nations Global Compact, National Banks and the NATO through various Executive Development Programs. He acts as Vice-President of the Institute for Transformative Thought & Learning, a Phoenix based research think tank, dealing with transformational, human and organizational congruence issues.

He is a Research Fellow of the Center for Business and Sustainability at Ashridge Business School and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Competitiveness in India.

He is the author and co-author of 8 books, and his academic work appears regularly on the Academy of Management, as well as The Economist and Harvard Business Review.

Grounded in both Humanities and Economics of Strategy, Mark has a B.A. and a M.A. in Human and Social Studies from the University of Turin in Italy, a Master of Business Administration in Organizational Theory and a Doctorate in Business Strategy and Economics from the International School of Management in Paris, on a joint program with St. John’s University in New York City. From 2009 to 2011, Mark has attended Post-Doctoral Education at the Harvard Business School, where he refined his pedagogical skills on leadership and case method, complimenting them with doctoral seminal work on Competitiveness and Strategy.

In 2012, Mark Esposito was featured by the Financial Times, as Professor of the Week, where he contributed with 3 terms to the lexicon of the FT.

Ramu Damudaran

Ramu Damudaran

Director UN Academic Impact

UN 

New York

Ramu Damudaran

Ramu Damodaran is chief of the United Nations Academic Impact initiative, which aligns institutions of higher learning and research with the objectives of the United Nations and the States and peoples who constitute it. He is also the Secretary of the United Nations Committee on Information. He has been a member of the Indian Foreign Service, was promoted to the rank of Ambassador, and where he served as Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister of India as well as in the diplomatic missions in Moscow and to the United Nations.

Dr. Francis Quinn

Dr. Francis Quinn

Director of Sustainability Technologies

Workiva

Aimes

Dr. Francis Quinn

Francis Quinn, Ph.D., a global corporate strategist, recently joined Workiva as Director of Sustainability Technologies. Quinn began his career as research fellow at the Japanese Ministry of International Trade & Industry. In 1996, he joined L’Oreal Group as a researcher in biomimetic and composite polymers. Quinn later led the integration of The Body Shop into L’Oreal. Most recently, he built the company’s global sustainable growth strategy as director of sustainable development. Quinn received his Ph.D. in physics from Trinity College Dublin.

Prof. Dr. Terence Tse

Prof. Dr. Terence Tse

Associate Professor of Finance

ESCP Europe Business School

London

Prof. Dr. Terence Tse

Professor Dr. Terence Tse is an Associate Professor of Finance at the ESCP Europe Business School. Before joining academia, he worked in mergers and acquisitions at Schroders, Citibank and Lazard Brothers in Montréal and New York. Dr Tse also worked in London as a consultant at Ernst & Young. As an independent consultant, he advised Shell International, F&C Asset Management, Alliance Boots, as well as Alitalia. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. Dr Tse also hold a Master of Arts in Corporate Strategy and Governance (University of Nottingham) and a Master of Economics (Universität des Saarlandes). He earned his Bachelor of Arts in German and Economics from the Western University, Canada.

Susanna Flood

Susanna Flood

Head Communications

Amnesty International

London

Susanna Flood

I lead Amnesty International’s global media work, delivering strategic and timely advice on media and audio visual strategies. I direct and oversee strategic planning and scheduling of media work managing a team of 15 staff.

Alexander Hug

Alexander Hug

Deputy Chief Monitor

OECD

Vienna

Alexander Hug

Before his appointment to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Alexander Hug was a Section Head and a Senior Adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. Hug, a trained lawyer, served as an officer in the Swiss Army, including a stint as regional commander of the Swiss Headquarters Support Unit for the OSCE in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has also worked for the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, and the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).

Dr Jovan Kurbalija

Dr Jovan Kurbalija

General Director

Geneva Internet Plattform

Geneva

Dr Jovan Kurbalija

Dr Jovan Kurbalija is the founding director of DiploFoundation. He is a former diplomat with a professional and academic background in international law, diplomacy, and information technology. In 1992, he established the Unit for IT and Diplomacy at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta. In 2002, after more than ten years of successful work in training, research, and publishing, the Unit evolved into DiploFoundation.

Dr Kurbalija directs online learning courses on ICT and diplomacy and lectures in academic and training institutions in Switzerland, the United States, Austria, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Malta. His main areas of research are diplomacy and the development of an international Internet regime, the use of hypertext in diplomacy, online negotiations and diplomatic law. He is the author of An Introduction to Internet Governance, which has been translated into eight languages and is now in its 6th edition.

Carolina Rodriguez

Carolina Rodriguez

Head Perception Change Geneva

UNOG

Switzerland

Carolina Rodriguez

Carolina Rodriguez heads a new project spearheaded by Michael Møller, the Acting-Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), aiming at changing the perception of International Geneva.

Andreas Heinecke

Andreas Heinecke

Founder and CEO

Dialogue in the Dark

Hamburg

Andreas Heinecke

Andreas Heinecke, founder and CEO of Dialogue Social Enterprise GmbH, started his path as social entrepreneur in 1988. While working for a radio-station, he was charged with developing a rehabilitation program for a blind colleague. Inspired by this encounter and realizing the potential he created a dialogue with a reversal of roles – the concept of Dialogue in the Dark.

Since then, numerous Dialogue in the Dark exhibitions and business workshops have evolved worldwide and are established independently through a social franchise-system. Millions of visitors and participants have been taking part in this unique experience, thereby promoting empathy and tolerance towards “otherness” in the greater public understanding. In 1997 Dialogue in Silence was created as complimentary experience in total silence where participants discover a repertoire of non-verbal expression with the help of deaf and hearing impaired guides and trainers.

Laura Thompson

Laura Thompson

Deputy Director General

IOM

Geneva

Laura Thompson

Ambassador Laura Thompson was re-elected as Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 19 June 2014 by the Organization’s Council of Member States for a second five-year term. Ambassador Thompson started her tenure as IOM Deputy Director General on 1 September 2009. With more than 20 years of experience in diplomacy, multilateral negotiation, development, and humanitarian affairs, she has provided leadership for multilateral initiatives and negotiations across the fields of migration, refugees, humanitarian assistance and human rights, and the environment.

Nikolaus Blome

Nikolaus Blome

Head of Berlin Office

Der Spiegel

Germany

Nikolaus Blome

Blome studied history, economics and politics in Bonn and Paris. Blome has received several awards for his work, including the Herbert Quandt Media Prize and the Theodor Wolff Prize, whose jury he was appointed to in 2013. Since October 15, 2013 he is member of the Editorial Board and head of the Berlin office of Der Spiegel and Spiegel Online.

Mustapha El Khalfi

Mustapha El Khalfi

Minister of Communication

Government Spokesman

Morocco

Mustapha El Khalfi

Mustapha El Khalfi, Minister of Communication, government spokesman, was born in 1973 in Kenitra.

He holds three bachelor (math sciences, experimental sciences, are letters), three licenses in physics, law and Islamic studies, a DEA on the political project of the Islamic movement in Morocco, and a PhD candidate in Anglo-American approaches to Islamic movements.

Mr. El Khalfi, has practiced in the field of journalism since 1997. He served as editor of publishing director at Attajdid newspaper, and was a member of the Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FMEJ).

He also trained at the American Institute of Advanced International Studies, after which he presented a study of the historical evolution (1975/2005) of the Sahara issue in the US Congress.

In 2009 he launched the Moroccan center studies and contemporary research, a Moroccan think tank which aims to help policy makers and civil society better understand the changes taking place in the Moroccan society and develop public policies that are in line with these changes.

Ziad Batal

Ziad Batal

Executive Producer

All 4 Media

Los Angeles

Ziad Batal

Tapping over 35 years of broad experience in live event production management, television production, film making, commercials, documentaries, branding and marketing. Batal’s Media projects span across the globe from Los Angeles, Vancouver to the Middle East, Ziad Batal has created and produced several television shows. Batal founded All 4 Media, one of the most prominent film and television production companies in Dubai. Having also created many reality-based and variety formats Batal is also the Executive producer of the “The Arabian Music Awards “The Noble Humanitarian Awards” and the “Jordan Awards”.

Prof. Dr. Christine Benesch

Prof. Dr. Christine Benesch

Assistent Professor

University of St. Gallen

Switzerland

Prof. Dr. Christine Benesch

Prof. Dr. Christene Benesch is an Assistant Professor at the  Department of Economics,  University of St. Gallen. She received her M.A and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Zurich. Between 2010 and 2011 was a research fellow at the Harvard Kenedy School, Cambridge. Proir to this she  served as a research assistant at the University of Zurich and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. Her research interests include; Political economy, public economics, behavioral economics and media economics.

15th Agenda Setting Conference