Nader Kabbani is the Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center and Senior Fellow with the Brookings Global Economy and Development Program. Kabbani works at the nexus of research; policy and practice and has helped start and played leadership roles in a number of social initiatives and policy research organizations. Most recently, Kabbani served as the Director of Policy and Research at the non-profit Silatech Foundation in Qatar and as the Founding Director of the Syrian Development Research Center at the non-profit Syria Trust for Development. Kabbani also co-founded the Community Mediation Program in Baltimore (USA) and led a UNDP-supported project that established a Platform for Development NGOs in Syria. He currently serves on the Board of the Massyr initiative (Lebanon). Kabbani has served on the faculty of the American University of Beirut and on the policy research staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California State Senate. Kabbani obtained his B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College, an M.A. in Public Management and Organizational Behavior from California State University, Sacramento and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He has completed executive education programs on NGO management and NGO leadership from the Maastricht School of Management and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

After his bachelor degree in Economics at Bogazici University, Neset Dereli started his advertising career in a creative agency. He managed many blockbuster projects as a copywriter and creative director, and then took place at senior management in many local and international agencies. In the meantime, he was rewarded with various international/local awards such as LIA (London International Awards), Kristal Elma and Felis. Then, he moved to a new challenge at Turkish Airlines as the Brand and Digital Advertising Manager. He has been the key person for many awards that Turkish Airlines won in the digital world, including Golden Drum, and Smitty. In 2016, he became the Halkbank Head of Corporate Communications Department and managed the Public Relations, Sponsorship, Advertisement and Digital Communications departments. Since August 2017, he has been the Corporate Communications Director of Turkcell. He has been an instructor in advertising at Bogazici University since 2004.

Nova Franklin, Principal at Meld Studios, is passionate about collaborating with others to develop, test and deliver creative ideas that positively impact people’s lives. Underpinning her approach is an understanding of human behaviour; methods designed to infect stakeholders with a sense of the possible; and techniques for designing and implementing “sticky” behaviour change initiatives.

Nova began her professional career with Andersen Consulting (now known as Accenture) in 1994 and since then has held a series of consulting and in-house Organisation Design and Change Management roles in blue chip organisations such as Westpac, Barclays Global Investors and The NSW Police Service. Most recently Nova worked as Asia Pacific Head of Engagement and Cultural Change for a complex global service company with over 100,000 employees.

In the early naughties – in conjunction with a stint as a Freelance Web and Graphic Designer – Nova completed a Graduate Diploma in Media Arts and Production at UTS. Nova has been a Registered Psychologist for over 15 years. Prior to this she earned a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology and Statistics, and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Psychology from Monash University.

Paul is currently the CEO of donkey wheel foundation - a leading impact investment and philanthropic foundation, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of The Difference Incubator - a prominent incubator of investable social enterprises in Australia. He is also co-founder and an executive director of Ethical Property Australia - a property development and management company seeking to create spaces where organisations can come together to make a difference. He also advises, mentors and coaches; helping people make the world a better place, through the development of leadership, strategy and innovation.

Rachael Brown is a leader within the creative and social enterprise sector who thrives on solving problems and turning ideas into reality.

Rachael is currently Chief Executive at Cultural Enterprise Office. She is Leader at Entrepreneurial Scotland, Social Entrepreneur in Residence with Social Investment Scotland, Chairperson at Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, Board Director at Social Enterprise Scotland and Fellowship Councillor for Scotland at RSA.

She previously spent over a decade at Impact Arts and has worked on joint ventures with the Scottish Government and leading agencies including Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise.

Rachael works in Scotland and the rest of the world! Enabling ideas, connections and impacts to happened. With a strong track record of operational success, as well as using her imagination, Rachael works extensively supporting creative and social enterprises to deliver, grow, develop and sustain.

Sierra Hawthorne is an Engagement Manager in PwC’s Health Industries Advisory Practice. She brings seven years of experience in behavioral science and predictive analytics applied to public health. Her clients have included national health insurers, integrated delivery networks, charitable foundations and local government.

Sierra oversees PwC’s internal research and development for Behavior Predictor, a machine learning tool used to forecast health behavior across a population. This tool is used along with simulation modeling to predict the effect of community health interventions before real-world implementation; allowing private, social and public sector clients to channel investments to areas of highest impact.

She received her Master of Public Health from University of California Berkeley and her Bachelor of Science in International Politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Mr. Ayhan graduated from Marmara University Department of Political Science and Public Administration in 2000. Mr. Ayhan completed the master program at Marmara University European Community Institute EU Law Department and wrote his thesis, which is titled “Free Movement of Workers in the EU and Free Movement Right for Turkish Nationals”. He began to work at the Ministry for EU Affairs in 2001 held the posts of Assistant EU Affairs Expert, EU Affairs Expert, Coordinator and Director respectively. Between 2010-2013, Mr. Ayhan was assigned to EU Counsellor position at the Permanent Delegation of Turkey to the EU in Brussels. Between February 2016- February 2018, he served as the Director of the Economic and Financial Policies. Currently he is working as the Director of Social, Regional and Innovative Policies. He is responsible for the nation-wide coordination of the EU Programmes including the Employment and Social Innovation Program (EaSI), social-regional policies and social instruments.

Born in 2006, studying her 6th grade at Acı Schools, Istanbul, Turkey, Talya Özdemir is the spokesperson for Girls 4 Girls in Science Program, The Royal Academy of Science International Trust. Her Children’s Vision presentation at the 1st RASIT International Agora, June 2016, United Nations Headquarters, New York, when she was only 10 was followed next year by Girls in Science Vision presentation at the 2nd Commemoration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, February 2017, again at United Nations Headquarters, New York. This year she released her video message regarding ‘Girls in Science for Sustainable Future’ at the Women and Girls in Science, Towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, March 2018, The University of the West Indies St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago. She continues with her classical ballet training since 2012, and complementary dance (Street Jazz) training since 2014 at Tan Sağtürk Academy, Istanbul, Turkey.

Tarik M. Yousef is a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development program and the director of the Brookings Doha Center.

His professional career has spanned the academic world at Georgetown University and the Harvard Kennedy School; the public policy arena at the IMF, the World Bank and the UN; and more recently the NGO space at Silatech where he led the implementation of innovative solutions aimed at youth economic empowerment in the Arab countries. He has served on the advisory boards of development organizations and boards of directors of financial institutions including currently the Arab Financial Services Company.

His research has focused on the political economy of policy reform and the challenge of youth inclusion in the Arab world. His most recent publications include “Young Generation Awakening: Economics, Society, and Policy on the Eve of the Arab Spring (2016)”.

Teresa Franqueira is a professor at the University of Aveiro and a member of the Executive Committee of the Communication and Art Department of the UA.

She is senior researcher at the ID+ and coordinator of the ID+ DESIS Lab, a member of the international DESIS Network – Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability. Her research interests are focussed in themes related to service design and social innovations, and alternative scenarios towards more sustainable economic and social models. Within this scope she has written and published papers and participated in several international conferences. She won the ICEP Glass Award, held a scholarship at the FCT and received the João Branco Internacional Award for the Best Paper in the 8Th EAD Conference in Aberdeen. She has been invited as keynote speaker and to take part in several workshops, namely through scenario building and identification of possible solutions to be used in specific projects of creative places (Italy, Portugal, Sweden and UK).

Teresa has a PhD in Design from the Politecnico di Milano, a Master's degree in Industrial Design from FEUP / ESAD, a postgraduate degree in Industrial Design from the Glasgow School of Art / CPD and a degree in Equipment Design from ESAD Matosinhos.

Tim Draimin is a Senior Advisor at McConnell Foundation. He was previously the Executive Director of Social Innovation Generation (SiG) National. As Executive Director, Mr. Draimin supported SiG’s growing network of academics, practitioners, social entrepreneurs, allied institutions and partnerships in expanding Canada’s Social Innovation ecosystem.

A leader in the non-profit sector, Mr. Draimin was the founding CEO of Tides Canada Foundation. Mr. Draimin guided the Foundation’s expansion, established Canada’s first national support system for social entrepreneurs – Tides Canada Initiatives – and supported a world-renowned model of integrated conservation: BC’s Great Bear Rainforest initiative.

Tim is the author of Canada’s first national study of social entrepreneurship and a frequent advisor to government, non-profit associations and business. He has worked for or consulted in Canada and abroad with the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, the International Development Research Centre, Synergos, and Ford Foundation. He has served on many international delegations and participated at UN prepcoms. He was a member of Canada’s official delegation to UNCED.

Violaine Des Rosiers is co-CEO of a new organisation based in Montreal, Maison de l’innovation sociale (MIS), which contributes to eliminate obstacles that stand between a social impact idea and its implementation, and stimulate the emergence of social entrepreneurship in Quebec.

Between 1999 and 2008, she led and supported various organisational transformative initiatives in North and Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Later she served as the Head of the Middle East and North Africa regional department for Organisational Strategic Development at the International Red Cross as well as the Country Director in Lebanon. Upon her returned to Canada in 2013, she was appointed as the CEO of the one of the most important private Foundations in Canada, where she and her team developed and implemented an “Strategy for greater philanthropic impact” which radically transformed the Foundation’s approach to funding and partnership building.

Violaine describes herself as an action-oriented and pragmatic thinker and she likes seeing concrete results in action. As a thought-leader, she has a respected public presence, a passion for social issues and the desire to drive change at a national and global level.

Wren Laing joined Big Society Capital as an Investment Manager in September 2017. Her work focuses on our Homes for People in Need and Communities strategic areas. Prior to joining Big Society Capital, she was part of the Housing and Land Directorate at the Greater London Authority, working on investment solutions to help increase the delivery of affordable housing across London. Wren is Canadian and moved to the UK to complete her MSc at the London School of Economics prior to working as part of the development team on the transformation of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Wren’s interests and expertise include affordable housing delivery and its impact on urban economic development in the UK and developing contexts abroad.

Zeynep Bodur Okyay is the President and CEO of Kale Group of Companies which has investments in construction materials and chemicals as well as defense and aerospace. She holds a bachelor’s degree in management engineering from Istanbul Technical University and has completed graduate degree in management at Harvard University.

Having assumed the Presidency of Steering Committee of the C20 (Civil 20), an official engagement group of G20, during the Turkish Presidency of the G20 in 2015, Zeynep Bodur Okyay holds active duties in various non-governmental organizations, associations, foundations and chambers. She serves as the president of the general assembly of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, vice-president of the Economic Development Foundation, board member of the Foreign Economic Relations Board, president of Turkey-Italy Business Council and vice-president of the female entrepreneurs’ board of the Union of Chambers and  Commodity Exchanges of Turkey.

Zeynep Kadirbeyoğlu (PhD in Political Science at McGill University; MPhil in Social and Political Sciences at University of Cambridge) is an Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations Department at Bogazici University (Istanbul). Her research interests include democratization, migration, citizenship and enviroment and politics. She has previously been published in Public Administration and Development, Environmental Politics and a couple of edited volumes.