Bariza Khiari is the personal representative of the President of the French Republic on the ALIPH Foundation Board as well as its Chair since 14 November 2023. She is the current President of the Institut des Cultures d’Islam, a cultural establishment in Paris. Ms. Khiari has been a French politician since the 1970s. She was a Senator from 2004 to 2017 and the first Vice President of the French Senate from 2011 to 2014. She was also a Judge at the Court of Justice of the French Republic. Throughout her political career, Ms. Khiari has defended equality and religious minorities in the Middle East. She contributed to the creation of a Senate study group on these issues, advocating interfaith cooperation. Ms. Khiari was appointed Chevalier in both France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor and National Order of Merit. Originally from Algeria, Ms. Khiari is binational. She holds a Master’s degree in business management from the Institute of Business Administration of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak presently serves as Chair of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, which oversees the conservation and promotion of Abu Dhabi’s heritage and culture. In 2016, H.E. Al Mubarak was appointed Chair of the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), master developer of major tourism, cultural and residential destinations in Abu Dhabi. He also serves as Chair of Miral Asset Management, an organization responsible for creating and managing destinations in Abu Dhabi, and Chair of Aldar Properties. In addition, he is Chair of Aldar Academies, and Chair of Image Nation Abu Dhabi – a content creation company for film and television in the Middle East. H.E. Al Mubarak is a graduate of Northeastern University (United States of America), with a double major in economics and political science.

Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan is an American business and community leader, philanthropist, environmentalist, and art collector. He served as the Chairman of ALIPH from 2017 to 2023. In addition, he is the Chairman of the investment and asset management firm The Electrum Group LLC; past President and Chairman of the 92nd Street Y, Manhattan’s premier cultural and community center; Founder and Chairman of Panthera, the global leader in big cat conservation; and, Founder of The Leiden Collection, the world’s largest private collection of Rembrandt and Dutch Golden Age art. Dr. Kaplan is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Among other distinctions, he was appointed Chevalier (2014) and promoted to the rank of Officier (2020) in France’s National Order of the Legion of Honor, Commandeur in France’s Order of Arts and Letters (2017), and Officier in the Netherlands’ Order of Orange-Nassau (2018). Dr. Kaplan earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s and DPhil degrees in modern history from the University of Oxford. He is married to Daphne Recanati Kaplan. They have three children and reside in New York City.

His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Alsaud is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s first Minister of Culture, the Governor of the Royal Commission for AlUla, and a member of the Kingdom’s Council of Economic and Development Affairs. Prince Badr also provides thought leadership and strategic guidance to several entities as Chairman of the Board, including the Diplomatic Quarter Authority, the Misk Art Institute, and the Saudi Society for the Preservation of Industrial Heritage, amongst others. Previously, His Highness was Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG), the largest publishing company in the Middle East, and Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Heritage Preservation Society. He is a law graduate of King Saud University.

HE Mrs Nadia Ernzer is a career diplomat who has carried out different missions within the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFEA) and the European institutions. At national level, she worked on sub-Saharian Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Balkans and Turkey, notably in the context of the Luxemburg presidencies of the Council of the European Union in 2005 and 2015. From 2016 to 2020, she was Deputy Secretary General of the MFEA. At international level, she was based in Vienna early in her career and covered inter alia UN files. She spent seven years within the European institutions, at the General Secretariat of the Council and at the European External Action Service, mainly dealing with Russia. She was also Ambassador to Albania. In summer 2022, Mrs. Ernzer has been nominated Luxembourg Ambassador to OECD and UNESCO.

Wen Dayan is the Director General of Foreign Affairs at China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration. From 2009-2013, he was Deputy Director of European Cultural Relations at the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, and Protocol Officer from 2005-2008. During his work at the Ministry of Culture, he served as the Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo between 2001-2005. Mr. Wen earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, before attending the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA) in France, where he graduated with honors. He went on to pursue a Master’s degree in public administration at the ENA, followed by a Master’s in law from the Renmin University of China.

Ms. Eleni Apeyitou is a career diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus (MFA). She has served in different posts and functions, inter alia as Deputy Head of Mission of the Permanent Mission of Cyprus in Vienna, as Deputy Head of Mission in the Cyprus Embassy in Berlin, and is currently Head of the Climate, Economic, and Cultural Diplomacy Department at the MFA. In the past she has served as Head of the Communications and Social Media Unit of the MFA, and also served in the Diplomatic Office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus. Ms. Apeyitou is a member of the Cyprus National Committee for UNESCO. Ms. Apeyitou is a graduate of a Bachelors and Masters Degree of Boston University, USA, where she studied History, Political Science and International Relations.

Mehdi Qotbi has been President of the Fondation Nationale des Musées du Maroc since 2011. An internationally renowned artist, he works to promote intercultural understanding through the Cercle d'amitié franco-marocain, of which he is founder. He is also founder and editor of Trait d'Union Maroc-Europe and a former member of the Advisory Council on Human Rights of Morocco. Mr. Qotbi has received several honors and distinctions, including Commandeur of the Legion of Honor, Commandeur of the Order of Arts and Letters, Officier of the National Order of Merit, Chevalier of the Order of Academic Palms (France), Commandeur of the National Order of Merit (Hungary) and Commandeur of the Order of Civil Merit (Spain). Mr. Qotbi is a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Rabat (Morocco) and the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse (France).

Gayane Umerova, Deputy Head of the Department of Social Development of the Presidential Administration and Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), is a driving force behind Uzbekistan’s cultural transformation. She leads major initiatives, including the restoration of the Centre for Contemporary Art in Tashkent, the construction of the new State Museum of Arts by Tadao Ando, and serves as commissioner for the Uzbekistan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and Expo 2025 Osaka. A key figure in the creative economy, Umerova hosted the 4th World Conference on Creative Economy in 2024 and is preparing for the 43rd UNESCO General Conference in Samarkand (Oct–Nov 2025) as Chairperson of the National Commission of Uzbekistan on UNESCO Affairs. Her leadership continues to position Uzbekistan as a global cultural hub, fostering opportunities for young creatives and strengthening the nation’s cultural economy.

Art collector, philanthropist and entrepreneur, Jean Claude Gandur co-founded the Addax & Oryx Group in 1987, active in the energy sector, which he currently chairs. In addition, Mr. Gandur chairs the Addax & Oryx Foundation, a non-profit organization established in 1996, focused on funding projects that target the root causes of poverty in Africa and the Middle East. In 2010, he founded the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art to ensure the preservation and public accessibility of his internationally recognized art collections, and in 2011, he created the Fondation Gandur pour la Jeunesse dedicated to the development and social integration of disadvantaged youth. Mr. Gandur is Chair of both Foundations. Mr. Gandur was appointed Officier in France’s National Legion of Honor in 2017. He studied law and political science at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), and ancient history at the University Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris (France).

Dr. Katherine Elizabeth Fleming is President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world’s wealthiest art institution. Getty's mission is to support the exhibition, research, and conservation of the world's artistic heritage. Fleming was Provost of New York University (NYU) from 2016-2022 and holds the A.S. Onassis Chair of Hellenic Culture and Civilization in NYU’s department of history. A specialist on the modern Mediterranean, Fleming was educated at Barnard College of Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California Berkeley and has served at academic institutions in France, Greece, and the USA. She is a board member of several institutions in the cultural and educational not-for-profit sectors, among them Barnard College, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, and the Universities of Paris system. An elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is also a Commander in the Greek Order of Beneficence and a Chevalier in the French Legion d’Honneur.

Dr. Mariët Westermann is the Director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, directing its flagship institution in New York, overseeing the Foundation and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and providing collaborative leadership working with the director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the project director for the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Westermann led NYU Abu Dhabi, a degree-granting liberal arts and research campus of NYU, as Vice Chancellor, Chief Executive, and Professor of Arts and Humanities from 2019 to 2024. She was the institution’s Provost at its founding, from 2007 to 2010. At NYU Abu Dhabi, she oversaw all academic, administrative, financial, and operational affairs. Previously, Westermann served as Executive Vice President at the Mellon Foundation, as a faculty member and Director at NYU/Institute of Fine Arts, as Associate Director of Research and Academic Programs at the Clark Art Institute, and as a faculty member at Rutgers University. She is a graduate, magna cum laude, of Williams College and holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees in the History of Art from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. Westermann has received fellowships, honors, and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Philosophical Society, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Clark Art Institute, College Art Association, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Westermann serves on the boards of ALIPH – The International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, the Educational Testing Service, and the Rijksmuseum, and chairs the Scholar Rescue Fund of the Institute of International Education. In Abu Dhabi, she is a board member of AmCham Abu Dhabi and the US-UAE Business Council.

Richard Kurin is the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large. He serves as the Smithsonian liaison to the President of the United States of America’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities and the White House Historical Association and is a member of the U.S. Department of State Cultural Heritage Coordinating Committee. Prior to his current role, Dr. Kurin served as Acting Provost and Under Secretary for Museums and Research from 2015, and from 2007, as Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture. Moreover, he served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and helped draft an international treaty to safeguard living cultural heritage. He has published scores of scholarly articles on cultural representation, intangible cultural heritage, and the sociology and arts of India and Pakistan. Dr. Kurin has been honored by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, the International Council of Museums, the American Anthropological Association, the American Folklore Society and the Cosmos Club. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. With a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago, Dr. Kurin has held Fulbright and Social Science Research Council fellowships and has taught at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Markus Hilgert is the Secretary General and CEO of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. A specialist in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, he has served as Director of the Ancient Near East Museum at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin from 2014 until 2018. From 2007 until 2014, he was Professor for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Assyriology) at Heidelberg University. From 2015 until 2018, Prof. Dr. Hilgert was the Coordinator of the national trans-disciplinary research alliance ILLICID focusing on the illicit traffic with cultural property in Germany (funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research). He was the founding Director of the Heidelberg Center for Cultural Heritage at Heidelberg University and the Center for Digital Cultural Heritage in Museums (ZEDICUM) at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. From 2017 until 2018, Prof. Dr. Hilgert was the Coordinator of the national program “museum4punkt0 – Digital Strategies for the Museum of the Future” under the auspices of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media. Prof. Dr. Hilgert has received several awards for his academic achievements and holds honorary professorships at Heidelberg University, Marburg University, and Berlin University (Freie Universität).

Marc-André Renold, Dr. iur., LL.M. (Yale) is Honorary Professor of art and cultural heritage law at the University of Geneva. Until December 2023, he served as the Director of the Art-Law Center and the holder of the University of Geneva's UNESCO Chair on “The International Law of the Protection of Cultural Heritage”. Prof. Renold is attorney-at-law, member of the Geneva Bar and of counsel for the firm Wenger Plattner. His areas of practice are, among others, art and cultural heritage law, intellectual property and public and private international law. He is the author or co-author of many publications in the field of international and comparative art and cultural heritage law.

Ernesto Ottone Ramírez is the Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO. He served as Chile’s first Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage from 2015 to 2018, where he created the Department of First Peoples, a Migrants Unit and strengthened copyright laws and heritage protections. During this time, he also chaired the Regional Centre for the Promotion of Books in Latin America and the Caribbean (2016-2017). From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Ottone Ramírez served as Director-General of the Artistic and Cultural Extension Center of the University of Chile, which manages the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, the Chilean National Ballet (BANCH), the Chile Symphony Choir and the Vocal Camerata. From 2001 to 2010, he held the position of Executive Director at the Matucana 100 Cultural Center in Santiago. Mr. Ottone Ramírez holds a Master’s degree in management of cultural institutions and policies from the University of Paris IX Dauphine and a Bachelor of Arts in theater from the University of Chile.

Mounir Bouchenaki , born in November 1943 in Algeria , contributed during four years (2013 -2017) to the launching of a UNESCO category II Centre in Bahrain, where he is now an advisor. He was elected Director-General of ICCROM end 2005 - 2011. He was the initiator of the ICCROM/Sharjah Centre . His appointment at ICCROM followed a long career of 25 years at UNESCO, where he was Assistant Director-General for Culture ,Director of the Division of Cultural Heritage, Director of the World Heritage Center at UNESCO, and in his own country, Director of Antiquities, Museums and Historic Monuments in the Algeria from 1970 to 1981. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology and ancient history . He has been awarded the medals of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and Commander des Arts et Lettres . In 2002. He was raised to the rank of “Commendatore of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity” by the President of the Italian Republic. He was awarded by the President of the Algerian Republic with a Golden Medal of Culture, and by the French President of the Republic the title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur ».He was awarded by SAS Prince Albert II of Monaco and by HRH Princess of Hanover the medal of Culture. He published a number of books on and articles. His last book is published in French about the “ Mutilated Heritage”(2017) . Presently, He is Special Advisor to the UNESCO Director General and to the ICCROM Director General. He was member of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Institution for 8 years (USA), and Member of the Advisory Board of the State Hermitage Museum( Russia)up to last year, Ad hoc Expert for the Safeguarding of the site of Angkor( Cambodia), Ad Hoc expert for the restoration of two churches and a mosque in Mosul(Iraq), Honorary president of the Del Bianco Foundation in Florence(Italy), and Honorary president of the Borsa del Mediterraneo for Tourism and Archaeology in Paestum ( Italy). He was recently elected (June 2022) Interim Chairperson of the ALIPH Scientific Committee.

Valéry Freland, a French career diplomat, has been the Executive Director of ALIPH since September 2018, where he is responsible for the strategic implementation and management of the Foundation. A graduate of law and a former student of Sciences Po (Paris) and the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA – class Léopold Sedar Senghor), he has held several positions in the central administration of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (European Affairs, Cultural Affairs) and abroad: Culture and Audiovisual Advisor at the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union (Brussels, 2007-2009), Advisor for Cooperation and Cultural Action at the French Embassy in Tunisia (2010-2013), Consul General of France in Boston (2015-2018). He has also served as the Diplomatic Advisor to the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Frédéric Mitterrand (2009-2010). He is Officier of the French Order of Arts and Letters.

Jeffrey Plunkett is the chairman of the Audit Committee of ALIPH. He is the former Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel of Natixis Investment Managers. At Natixis, he was a member of the firm’s executive committee and managed the company’s global legal operations, including the legal function management at Natixis’ multiple autonomous investment management and distribution subsidiaries operating globally in different jurisdictions. Prior to joining Natixis, he was a partner at Goodwin Procter LLP, a global law firm where he specialized in corporate and securities law, mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Mr. Plunkett also serves on the board and is Secretary of the French-American Chamber of Commerce - New England, is a member of the board of TransCultural Exchange and is a past member of the board of trustees of the French Cultural Center in Boston. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.

Mounir Bouchenaki , born in November 1943 in Algeria , contributed during four years (2013 -2017) to the launching of a UNESCO category II Centre in Bahrain, where he is now an advisor. He was elected Director-General of ICCROM end 2005 - 2011. He was the initiator of the ICCROM/Sharjah Centre . His appointment at ICCROM followed a long career of 25 years at UNESCO, where he was Assistant Director-General for Culture ,Director of the Division of Cultural Heritage, Director of the World Heritage Center at UNESCO, and in his own country, Director of Antiquities, Museums and Historic Monuments in the Algeria from 1970 to 1981. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology and ancient history . He has been awarded the medals of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Officier des Arts et des Lettres, and Commander des Arts et Lettres . In 2002. He was raised to the rank of “Commendatore of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity” by the President of the Italian Republic. He was awarded by the President of the Algerian Republic with a Golden Medal of Culture, and by the French President of the Republic the title of "Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur ».He was awarded by SAS Prince Albert II of Monaco and by HRH Princess of Hanover the medal of Culture. He published a number of books on and articles. His last book is published in French about the “ Mutilated Heritage”(2017) . Presently, He is Special Advisor to the UNESCO Director General and to the ICCROM Director General. He was member of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Institution for 8 years (USA), and Member of the Advisory Board of the State Hermitage Museum( Russia)up to last year, Ad hoc Expert for the Safeguarding of the site of Angkor( Cambodia), Ad Hoc expert for the restoration of two churches and a mosque in Mosul(Iraq), Honorary president of the Del Bianco Foundation in Florence(Italy), and Honorary president of the Borsa del Mediterraneo for Tourism and Archaeology in Paestum ( Italy). He was recently elected (June 2022) Interim Chairperson of the ALIPH Scientific Committee.

Francesco Bandarin is the former Assistant Director General for Culture of UNESCO (2010-2018) and former Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center (2000-2010). An Italian national, he holds a degree in architecture from the Iuav University of Venice and a masters in city planning from the University of California, Berkeley. He currently teaches at SciencesPo in Paris. As Director of the World Heritage Centre, Mr. Bandarin was responsible for the implementation of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. In 2014, he served as president of the jury of the Venice Biennale of Architecture. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and a member of the Managing Board of the Santagata Foundation for the Economy of Culture.

Irina Bokova is the former Director General of UNESCO (2009 – 2017) and a former Bulgarian politician and diplomat. Prior to her tenure at UNESCO, she served as a member of the National parliament of Bulgaria, as deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of foreign affairs (ad interim). She has also served as Bulgaria’s ambassador to France and Monaco and as the personal representative of Bulgaria’s president to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Ms. Bokova has received state distinctions from more than 40 countries across the world and is Doctor honoris causa of leading universities across the world, such as King’s College, University of Edinburgh, Paris-Saclay, Boston University, Catholic University of Milan or Tonji University (China). In 2020 she was also elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the category of Scientific, Cultural and Non-profit Leadership. Ms. Bokova serves on the Board of the Ban Ki Moon Centre for Global Citizens, as a Member of the Concordia Leadership Council, and as a Member of the Strategic Committee of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), among others. She is the President of The Council of the University for Peace, a visiting lecturer at the University of Geneva, a Miwon Scholar of Peace Studies at Kyung-Hee University (Seoul), and a Member of the International Advisory Council of the Beijing Forum at the University of Beijing. Ms. Bokova has been very active in the domain of protection of cultural heritage.

Jacob Fisch is an international nonprofit leader with deep expertise in the areas of philanthropic support for cultural heritage initiatives. Jacob is the former CEO of the Campaign for the National Library of Israel working with the late Lord Jacob Rothschild. He served for more than twenty-five years as the Founding Executive Director of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the pre-eminent organization in the fields of Israeli and Biblical Archaeology, where he initiated and spearheaded the funding of large-scale cultural heritage endeavors including the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, the Center for Exhibitions and Virtual Reconstruction, the Lod Mosaic Museum and the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel. He established a robust program of traveling archaeological exhibitions as well as historic long-term loans of ancient treasures from the Land of Israel to leading international museums.

Claude Haberer is a banking and finance executive who is since 2022 Advisor to the President of Bangkok Bank, in Bangkok. He was previously Equity Partner at Banque Pictet & Cie occupying the position of CEO (2011-2019) and then Chairman of Pictet Wealth Management Asia, based in Hong Kong. The first 30 years of his career were spent at BNP Paribas in an array of different functions, including CEO of BNP Paribas Private Bank North Asia, CEO of BNP Taiwan, Head of BNP Paribas’s Investor Relations and Head of Mission of BNP’s Inspection Générale. He holds an MBA from HEC Business School, a masters in Chinese from INALCO Paris and is an alumnus of Moscow State University. He speaks French, English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish and Russian. Mr. Haberer also serves as Chairman of the Ricci Association, publisher of the largest bilingual dictionary of the Chinese language and is the author of a history of Chinese-Philippine relations. He is a member of the Société d’études syriaques (Paris), a Member of the Finance Committee of the Society of Jesus at the Vatican and an advisor to a private equity fund in Thailand. He is a recipient of France’s National Order of Merit (Chevalier dans l’Ordre national du Mérite) and was Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD (2018-2020).

Abdul-Karim Hashim Mostafa is the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, a position he has held since February 2021. Previously, he served as Iraq's Senior Undersecretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2021 and as Advisor to the Prime Minister for diplomatic and international affairs from 2018 to 2019. His ambassadorial roles include postings in Morocco (2017–2018), China (2010–2016), and the Russian Federation (2004–2007). Dr. Mostafa holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Grenoble, France. Fluent in Arabic, French, English, and Farsi, he has a diverse background in international diplomacy and academia.

Deborah Lehr is the Chief Executive Officer at Basilinna. She has worked across Asia, the United States, the Middle East, and Europe, with a focus on business advisory, sustainability, finance, and culture. After her firm was acquired, Deborah launched a new public affairs firm for PR firm, Edelman, where she doubled both the revenues and staff in three years. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Paulson Institute, created by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Deborah is the founder and Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition, which fights against the illicit trade in antiquities. Earlier in her career, Deborah served on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange and Merrill Lynch, as well as in the U.S. Government as a Director at the National Security Council, and at the U.S. Trade Representative. Her leadership roles and dedicated efforts in fighting the illicit trade in antiquities have earned her global recognition. Deborah is on the Board of the National Geographic, the World Monuments Fund, the Middle East Institute, Meridian, and the International Advisory Boards of Sesame Workshop and ALIPH. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Michael Møller, a Danish national, is a seasoned international civil servant who dedicated over 40 years to the United Nations, starting his career in 1979 with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and ending it in 2019 as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva and Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. Møller served, inter alia, as the Deputy Chef de Cabinet of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus. He held various other posts in New York, Geneva, Mexico, Iran, Haiti, Cyprus and Geneva. He was also Executive Director of the Kofi Annan Foundation. He is currently on the Boards of a number of Organisations and Foundations, including the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipation Foundation (GESDA), the Kofi Annan Foundation and One Young World. Mr. Moller was critical in the determination of International Geneva as the operational hub of the United Nations and the Global Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Lab in Geneva in 2016. He created the Perception Change project and founded the International Gender Champions initiative, and pioneered the Strategic Heritage Plan to renovate the Palais des Nations. His contributions to the work of the United Nations earned him several awards, including the French Legion d’Honneur in 2019 and the Bourgeoisie d’Honneur de Genève in 2020. Born in Copenhagen in 1952, Møller holds degrees in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Sussex.

Lionel Sauvage is a French philanthropist and collector of 18th century French art based in Los Angeles, California. Following a career in finance, including serving as a portfolio manager at the Capital Group, he became deeply involved in supporting the arts. Mr. Sauvage currently serves as a board member of the American Friends of the Louvre, the Société des Amis du Louvre, the American Friends of Chantilly, the INSEAD Foundation, and the Abraham Path Initiative (Vice Chairman). He is also the co-founder of FLAX, the foundation connecting France-based artists with opportunities in Southern California. Mr. Sauvage holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD and an engineering degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Electricité et de Mecanique (ENSEM).

Elisabeth Decrey Warner is the Founder and former President of Geneva Call (1998 – 2018) and a former Swiss politician. From 1989 to 2001, she represented the Social Democratic Party on the Grand Council of the canton of Geneva (Parliament), serving as vice-president and then president from 1999 to 2001. In 1997, Ms. Decrey Warner was a member of the Swiss delegation to Ottawa to sign the UN Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Believing that the treaty should be supplemented by the possibility of negotiating with armed non-state actors, she founded to this end, in 1998, the Geneva-based NGO Geneva Call. Ms. Decrey Warner has served on the boards of several humanitarian organizations, including the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. She is also a board member of the organization Leaders pour la Paix (Paris) and vice-president of Terre des hommes in Switzerland. She is a recipient of the French Legion of Honor (officier), an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Geneva, the Hessian Peace Prize, and was nominated as one of 1000 women for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Viviane de Witt is a former French auctioneer and Geneva-based businesswoman. For twenty years, she held the gavel at Hotel Drouot and Crédit Municipal de Paris and was one of the first women to lead auctions in France and Switzerland. She is also the Director of Radio Cité Genève, a local radio station in Geneva, and has served as CEO of Manufacture DeWitt Haute Horlogerie, a private business manufacturing precision watch components. Ms. de Witt is a recipient of the French Legion of Honor and the Medal of Arts and Letters in recognition of her contributions to the worlds of arts and culture.

Born in 1979, Rima Abdul Malak spent the first ten years of her life in Beirut before her family, fleeing the civil war, settled in Lyon. During middle and high school, she discovered theater, practiced music, and developed a passion for literature and poetry. She began her career in the NGO sector, working with the Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development, then with Clowns Without Borders. She organized performances and training sessions in refugee camps, slums, hospitals, and orphanages around the world. In every child's eyes, she witnessed the universal and boundless power of artists. After an experience at the Institut Français leading the contemporary music division, she joined the Paris City Hall as a performing arts advisor, then as Chief of staff to the Deputy Mayor for Culture. In 2012, she became the cultural advisor to Bertrand Delanoë, whom she considers her political mentor. She then moved to New York as a cultural attaché for the French Embassy, where she developed tours, residencies, and exhibitions for French artists, contributed to the launch of the Albertine bookstore and the Night of Philosophy, created a children's festival, and initiated a campaign promoting French design. In 2019, she was appointed cultural advisor to Emmanuel Macron. She dedicated her energy to supporting the cultural sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, restructuring the Pass Culture, making reading a “great national cause”, and launching the Mondes Nouveaux commissioning program. From May 2022 to January 2024, she served as Minister of Culture in Élisabeth Borne’s government. Her tenure was marked by the opening of the Cité Internationale de la Langue Française in Villers-Cotterêts, the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris, a national plan for arts and crafts, two major laws on restitutions, the taxation of streaming platforms to support the music industry, a strong defense of public broadcasting, her commitment to ecological transition, and the La Relève initiative to develop future cultural leaders. She also infused poetry into the ministry, with the Rima Poésie Club and Nuits de la Lecture, as well as in most of her speeches. Her motto: Beauty will save the world!

Joseph E. Aoun is an internationally renowned higher education leader and the seventh president of Northeastern University. A preeminent voice on the value of higher education, President Aoun has led the global expansion of Northeastern, launching a university system spanning 13 campuses across North America and the UK and extending its signature co-op program through experiential learning opportunities in more than 140 countries. During his tenure, the University has increased external research funding six-fold, hired more than 800 tenure and tenure-track faculty, and earned the designation of an R1 research institution. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2017). In it, lays out a blueprint for colleges and universities to meet the challenges and opportunities associated with the transformative effects of artificial intelligence. President Aoun came to Northeastern from the University of Southern California’s College of Letters, Arts & Sciences where he was the inaugural holder of the Anna H. Bing Dean’s Chair. He received his Ph.D. in linguistics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and advanced degrees from the University of Paris VIII (France) and Saint Joseph University (Beirut, Lebanon). He was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques by the French government, and is a recipient of the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Academic Leadership Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past Chair of the American Council on Education.

Since 2017, Leah Pisar has served as the president of the Aladdin Project (founded in Paris in 2009 under the patronage of President Jacques Chirac), whose mission is to combat extremism by building bridges of knowledge between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, with a particular focus on education and youth. In parallel, she regularly narrates, alongside her mother, the text written by her father, Samuel Pisar, an Auschwitz survivor, for Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, Kaddish, with major orchestras worldwide . An expert on transatlantic relations, Leah Pisar frequently publishes articles and speaks in the media in both France and the United States on political and geopolitical affairs. From 2013 to 2018, she taught in the master’s Program in Communications at Sciences Po Paris. From 2001 to 2011, she directed the Young Leaders program at the French-American Foundation while completing her doctoral thesis at the University of Paris 2. Her analysis of Franco-American relations concerning Iraq was published in France by Fayard under the title Orage sur l’Atlantique (Storm Over the Atlantic). During this period, she was a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris and the Center for American Progress in Washington. She also served as rapporteur for the Council on Foreign Relations working group on the future of the transatlantic partnership, chaired by Henry Kissinger and Lawrence Summers. From 1995 to 2021, she was part of President Clinton’s team, serving as Director of Communications at the National Security Council at the White House. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director of Communications at the State Department under Madeleine Albright and an assistant to Ambassador Pamela Harriman in Paris. She is a board member of the Albertine Foundation (the French Institute for Culture and Education in the United States) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has also served on the boards of the Franco-American Fulbright Commission, the French-American Foundation, and the French Institute in New York. She was a Young Leader in the American Council on Germany’s program on the future of Europe and a Rising Talent at the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society in France. In 2018, she narrated, in both French and English, several performances of the multimedia oratorio Le Voyage de Babar at the Alliance Française in New York, set to a composition by Raphael Mostel, with a projection of Jean de Brunhoff’s illustrations from the archives of the National Library of France. Since 2021, she has been a jury member for the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, under the patronage of Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and remains deeply involved in this initiative. She holds degrees from Harvard University (Bachelor of Arts in Political Science), Sciences Po Paris (Master’s in International Relations), and the University of Paris 2 (Doctorate in Political Science). A laureate of the Concours Général, she completed her primary and secondary education at the École Jeannine Manuel in Paris, earning her Baccalauréat (Section B) in 1990. A Knight of the National Order of Merit, she received the Hero Award from the Global Hope Coalition in 2019. In 2022, President Biden appointed her as a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial in Washington. Born in Paris in 1972, she was married to Jérôme Haas, a French senior civil servant and President of the Accounting Standards Authority, until his passing in May 2014. Their son, Jeremiah, was born in November 2014.

Dora Bouchoucha has been a film producer since 1994. She has produced and co-produced several Award-winning documentaries, short and feature films including Satin Rouge, Buried Secrets and Foreign Body by Raja Amari, Inhebbek Hedi and Weldi by Mohamed Ben Attia. Dora Bouchoucha founded the Carthage Film Festival Projects’ workshop in 1992 and Takmil in 2014. She also founded the SUD ECRITURE workshops in 1997, which she has been running since. Dora Bouchoucha is actively involved in training and promotion for southern cinema. She was a permanent member of the International Rotterdam Festival CineMart Board for more than ten years and was consultant for Arab and African films for the selection board of Venice Film Festival from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, she was appointed head of Fonds Sud and in 2012, she was appointed President of the CNC “Aide Aux Cinémas du Monde”. She was head of Carthage Film Festival in 2008, 2010 and 2014. She was twice decorated by the Tunisian Republic to the highest rank of Grand Officer of the Republic and was awarded the Tahar Haddad Award for best Ambassador of Tunisian culture. In Cannes 2015, She was named Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. She was member of the Berlinale jury for feature films in 2017, of the debut feature films at the Venice Mostra in 2020 and president of the Jury of FESPACO in 2023. She was named member of the Commission for Individual Freedoms and Equality (COLIBE) by the President of the Republic of Tunisia in August 2017. She received a career achievement award at Gouna Film Festival and Luxor African film festival in Egypt, Salé festival in Morocco and at Med Film Festival in Rome in 2018. She is the director of Manarat, Mediterranean festival in Tunisia in 2018, 2019 and 2021. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In June 2021, she was named Vice President of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. In 2022, she is head of the jury of the new development and post-production fund of the RED SEA FILM FESTIVAL. She is name Knight of Arts and Letters of the Republic of Burkina Faso and presides the jury of FESPACO in 2023. She is the Godmother of the Fabrique du Cinéma de l’Institut Français at Cannes in 2023.