Aaron Rasmussen is an entrepreneur, inventor, and game designer. He’s best known as a founder of educational platforms MasterClass and Outlier.org, the latter known for creating impactful for-credit online college courses to promote affordable, equitable education. At MasterClass, Rasmussen was both Creative Director and CTO, creating courses taught by notable experts and directing many himself.

He previously founded and sold an industrial robotics company and a beverage company. The video game he co-wrote, BlindSide, has won multiple awards and is being adapted into a film. He speaks and writes on education, innovation, art, and the intersection of all with artificial intelligence.

Though rooted in the tradition of documentary photography, Monteleone is drawn to intangible themes that, in his view, reveal essential questions about contemporary society. His work combines pedagogical insight with interpretative storytelling, encouraging viewers to question, investigate, and reflect. Monteleone sees his role as a “curiosity trigger,” inviting audiences to look beyond the surface and engage in a deeper exploration of the world.

Alejandro Aravena graduated as an architect from Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992. Between 2000 and 2005 he was a professor at Harvard University, where he founded Elemental, a "Do Tank" founded in 2001. Elemental is led by Alejandro Aravena along with partners Gonzalo Arteaga, Juan Cerda, Victor Oddó, and Diego Torres.

In 2010 he was named Honorary International Fellow of the Royal Institute of Architects. Since 2011, he has been a member of the Council of the Cities Program of the London School of Economics. In 2014, he gave a TED Global Talk. Aravena's and Elemental's works have been recognized by awards including the Silver Lion at Venice Biennale (2008) and the Gothenburg Award for Sustainability (2017). In 2016, Aravena was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize and was the Curator of the XV Venice Biennale. Since 2020, he has been the President of the Pritzker Prize Jury.

Alexandre Kordzaia, known professionally as Kordz, is a Georgian electronic music producer, composer, and performer born in Tbilisi in 1994. Raised between Georgia and Switzerland in a musical family, he developed an early passion for both classical and contemporary music. Kordz's music blends classical influences—such as Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky—with electronic and funk icons like Prince, James Brown, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. His work spans genres including downtempo, ambient, and experimental electronic music, often incorporating orchestral elements. His signature piano sounds— minimalist yet emotionally resonant—serve as the backbone of his compositions, weaving intricate melodies that bridge the gap between analog warmth and digital precision. With over 3.8 million total streams as of April 2025 , Kordz continues to shape Georgia's electronic and classical music scenes, offering a distinctive sound that defies traditional genre boundaries. For those interested in exploring modern Georgian music, Kordz offers a compelling entry point into the country's vibrant electronic and experimental scenes.

Anya Schiffrin is the director of the Technology, Media, and Communications specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a senior lecturer who teaches on global media, innovation and human rights.  She writes on journalism and development, investigative reporting in the global south and has published extensively over the last decade on the media in Africa. More recently she has become focused on solutions to the problem of online disinformation, earning her PhD (with honors) on the topic from the University of Navarra. She is the editor of Women in the Digital World, (Routledge, April 2023) Global Muckraking: 100 Years of Investigative Reporting from Around the World (New Press, 2014) and African Muckraking: 75 years of Investigative journalism from Africa (Jakana 2017) She is the editor of Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms and Governments Control the News (Columbia University Press 2021.) Dr. Schiffrin's work with economist Haaris Mateen on the valuation of news has been cited in the Atlantic, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post and many other publications. She is a leading thinker and commentator on AI and publishing, media sustainability as well as mis/disinformation and media impact.

Armando Iannucci is a writer, director, and broadcaster whose critically acclaimed work spans television, film, radio, and stage. In 2005, Iannucci created the BBC series 'The Thick of It'. The show received widespread recognition, earning 13 BAFTA nominations and 5 wins. The success of the series also led to the 2009 film 'In the Loop', which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Armando then went on to create the HBO series ‘Veep’. The show explored the American political system through the character of Selina Meyer, winning several prestigious awards, including four Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series.

In 2017 he published 'Hear Me Out', a new book on classical music and released the feature film ‘The Death of Stalin’ which received 2 BAFTA nominations and won Best Comedy at the European Film Awards. In 2019, he directed ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’, which won Best Screenplay at both the WGBA and BIFA, while also earning a Golden Globe nomination.

Iannucci returned to HBO with ‘Avenue 5’, a sci-fi comedy about a luxury space cruise ship that goes off course, starring Hugh Laurie. The series was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

In 2024, Iannucci adapted Stanley Kubrick's ‘Dr. Strangelove’ for the stage, reimagining the film as a live theatrical production. The stage version received acclaim for its bold take on Kubrick’s political satire and marked Iannucci’s return to working with Steve Coogan, with whom he created the character, Alan Partridge.

Arwa Damon is a five-time Emmy winning former CNN Senior International Correspondent. While her career has taken her across the globe, she is best known for her coverage of the Middle East, especially out of Iraq and Syria, and for the human stories she brings into her reporting. She is also the recipient of numerous Peabody Awards, the Investigative Reporters and Editors award for her coverage of the 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, and the prestigious “Courage in Journalism” award by the International Women’s Media Foundations. In 2015 Arwa founded her charity, the International Network for Aid, Relief, and Assistance, INARA, that provides comprehensive holistic medical and mental health care for children impacted by war and natural disasters who otherwise would not be receiving treatment. In 2022 Arwa parted ways with CNN to direct and produce the award-winning documentary “Seize the Summit” and focus on growing and expanding INARA. She is also a non-resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.

Becky is Coda Story’s Senior Audio Producer. She produced and co-wrote Coda’s podcast series for Audible – ‘Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants and Us’. Before joining Coda Becky spent 25 years with the BBC as a foreign news producer, for radio and TV. She was based in South Africa and Kenya for 7 years, and before than spent many years in Asia. With the BBC she produced the award-winning ‘Blood Lands’ podcast, a true crime story set in rural South Africa. She also produced BBC News’ first virtual reality news documentaries and is especially interested in using spatial sound to create immersive experiences.

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Branko Brick started his book publishing career in 1984 in what was then Yugoslavia. The highlights included the complete works of William Shakespeare, Complete Greek Tragedies and Miroslav’s Gospel, the Serbian nation’s holiest book, which was included in Unesco’s Memory of the World upon re-publication. In South Africa, Branko launched, and edited, several publications, including the magazines Timbila, Brainstorm, Maverick and Empire, and the newspaper 168, South Africa’s final weekend newspaper. In late 2009, Branko launched Daily Maverick, an online daily with readership of 12-million monthly unique visitors as of 20 March 2023. In June 2018, Branko won Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity, considered South Africa’s premier journalism award. The #GuptaLeaks, Daily Maverick’s most famous contribution so far, in collaboration with amaBhungane and News24, brought many more awards, among them the 2019 Global Shining Light Award, shared with Maria Ressa’s The Rappler in Philippines.

Cesar Kuriyama, the visionary behind 1 Second Everyday, began his career as a director and VFX artist, crafting visual narratives that captivated audiences. His personal endeavor to capture the essence of daily life by recording a second of video every day—a practice he's faithfully maintained for over 12 years—was introduced to a global audience through his TED Talk in 2012 with over 2 million views. This sparked widespread interest and led to the creation of the 1SE app, empowering others to embrace a similar journey. Today, under Cesar's guidance, the 1SE team, comprised of 16 dedicated humans from around the world, passionately develops tools that enable individuals to chronicle and deeply connect with their own stories and experiences.

Born in Peru and raised in the United States as a math and science nerd, Cesar's love for storytelling eventually led him to study multiple artistic disciplines at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Before launching 1SE, he worked in the advertising world with notable clients like BMW, Verizon, and the NFL. His personally produced work has garnered millions of views and been featured in Fast Company, Wired, CNN, and The New York Times. He has also taught courses at NYU and Pratt Institute.

Imagine a movie that includes every day of the rest of your life.

Christopher Wylie is a social researcher and data scientist. He has served as a senior adviser in both the British and Canadian governments, and has extensive experience using technology to improve communication and citizen engagement. With an avid interest in cultural applications of technology, his postgraduate research focused on fashion trend forecasting. Christopher is the former Director of Research for Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, which was a UK-based military contractor specializing in information warfare. He witnessed firsthand how culture, information and algorithms were being weaponized by militaries, governments and companies to undermine elections around the world. In 2018, Wylie worked with The Guardian and New York Times as a whistleblower to expose how social media data was being exploited and turned against ordinary citizens. His testimonies at the United States Congress and British Parliament served as a wake-up call for many and have quickly led to new legislative proposals in both countries.

Claudia Milne is senior vice president, Standards and Practices for CBS News and Stations, where she oversees all CBS News editorial standards and ensures they are being maintained across all CBS News, stations and digital platforms.

Davide Monteleone is a visual artist, researcher, and National Geographic Fellow whose work spans photography, visual journalism, writing, and interdisciplinary projects. His practice explores complex themes, including geopolitics, geography, identity, data, and science. Originally from Italy, Monteleone spent over a decade in Russia between 2000 and 2021, where he developed his early series and published four acclaimed monographs: Dusha (2007), Red Thistle (2012), Spasibo (2013), and The April Theses (2017).

Monteleone’s work has been featured in prominent publications such as National Geographic, Time, and The New Yorker and exhibited in renowned venues, including the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. His 2022 project Sinomocene, a data-driven investigation into China’s economic expansion, materialised as both an exhibition and a book, furthering his commitment to narratives that merge visual storytelling with investigative research.

In 2024, he completed Critical Minerals—Geography of Energy, an exploration into the geopolitical and environmental stakes of energy transition resources, which continues his examination of climate and economic impacts on a global scale.
Among Monteleone’s numerous accolades are the Leica Oskar Barnack Award (2024), the Deloitte Photo Grant (2024), the National Geographic Fellowship (2019), the Asia Society Fellowship (2016), and the Carmignac Photojournalism Award (2013). He holds a Master’s in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is actively engaged as a curator and educator across various public and private institutions.

Ed Caesar is a staff writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of two books, most recently The Moth and the Mountain, which tells the story of a solo attempt to climb Everest in 1934, and was named a Times and Sunday Times book of the year, among other awards. As a journalist, he has covered war, organised crime, financial crime, and some more enjoyable things, like DJs, tennis matches, and the world's largest diamond. Kevin Costner once asked him if he was "anxious to die". He is not.

Emma Lacey-Bordeaux is a seasoned journalist, speaker and teacher. She serves as Senior Director for Standards and Practices at CNN and teaches ethics at Georgetown University. In her career Emma has distinguished herself with enterprise reporting and strong leadership. Her work has garnered multiple awards including an Emmy and multiple Peabodys. In 2018 she produced a groundbreaking documentary, The Feminist on Cellblock Y,  that continues to be taught in colleges, high schools and middle schools across the United States.

Since 2017 she has called Washington DC, home but she hails from Atlanta, Georgia and has family roots in Texas, Michigan and New York. She lives with her husband, two cats and a dog. She loves biking, hiking, yoga, visiting DC’s many museums and hosting elaborate dinner parties.

Erzsébet Barát has been the Recurring Visiting Professor in the Department of Gender Studies, CEU since September 2000. She acted as Associate Professor in the Department of English, University of Szeged, Hungary until her retirement in May 2023. She earned her PhD in Linguistics from the Social Sciences Faculty, Lancaster University, UK in 2000. Her research interests include feminist critical theory, queer and transfeminism, relational models of identity, and the relationship between language, power and ideology, with a focus on hate speech and anti-gender politics.

Between 2011 – 2024, she acted as Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Hungarian open access journal, TNTeF: Interdisciplinary e-Journal of Gender Studies; the only academic journal of feminist scholarship in the country. She launched and organized the annual gender studies conference in Hungary at University of Szeged from 2005 to 2021 and acted as founding director of the specialization of ‘Gender through Literatures and Cultures in English’ of the MA in English Studies (2009-2023). She has been invited to run courses in MA and PhD programs across Europe, most recently in 2023 at the University of Sundsvall, Sweden and in 2025 at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland. She has been awarded the Käthe Leichter Guest Professorship in Gender Studies, Universität Wien, Austria in 2013 and 2023. She regularly participate in international research projects; most recently in “Bodies in Transit: Genders, Mobilities, and Interdependencies” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity (2018-2022), and the COST Action Project, “Decolonising Development” (CA 19129)  (2020-2024).

Her academic performance has been acknowledged by Nobilia, the Gender Studies Award, by the Gender Studies Forum, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall in November 2022, and her perseverance as a scholar by the UNESCO Chair Jubilee Medal by Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw for "relentless research activism in support of gender studies and women's and minority rights" in March 2024. She is a regular contributor to edited volumes and journals in English and Hungarian – both abroad and in Hungary.

Illustrator George Butler reports on the ground from conflict zones, climate hotspots and humanitarian crises, using pen, ink and watercolours to highlight personal stories of resilience. By slowing down and going deeper than the headlines, his humanistic approach is shifting how we think about the news. He has written and illustrated two books on Migration and Ukraine. His work has been published by the BBC, The Guardian, NYT,  and is held in V&A Museum collection.

He is a TEDx speaker and TED Fellow and his drawings for VQR magazine won Best Illustrated story at the ASME Awards in the USA in 2023.  In 2014 he won the V&A Illustration Award and the Breakaway Award at the International Media Awards presented by Don McCullin.  And in 2023 he was shortlisted for the prestigious Kate Greenaway Award.

George is a co-founder of Action Syria, a NGO he started to support doctors and teacher salaries in Syria, which has raised £9million.

Ghaith Abdulahad is an award-winning Iraqi author and journalist, born and raised in Baghdad. He studied architecture at the University of Baghdad before turning to journalism in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion. Since then, Abdulahad has reported extensively for The Guardian, covering major conflicts across the Middle East and beyond—including Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq. His work has earned numerous awards, including the Orwell Prize for Journalism, the British Press Award, and two Emmys, among others. In 2023, he published his critically acclaimed debut book, A Stranger in Your Own City—an unflinching account of the catastrophic aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the years of civil war that followed.

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2000, Giorgi studied the piano without ever thinking about a professional career as a pianist. He is passionate about the folksongs of his country, which he likes to arrange and sing. He even participated in the Georgian version of ‘The Voice’ and won the competition at the age of 13. He continued his musical training at the Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children and entered the Tbilisi State Conservatory, in the class of Revaz Tavadze. Giorgi’s pianistic career took a decisive turn in April 2019 when he won First Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition. A few months later, Giorgi won Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the Sixty-Second Busoni Competition. In 2021, he received the Hortense Anda- Bührle Special Prize at the Fifteenth Géza Anda Piano Competition in Zurich, which was followed by an invitation to take part in the KlavierOlymp in Bad Kissingen, where he won First Prize and the Audience Prize. In March 2023, Giorgi celebrated another great success. He won the 2nd Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and was also awarded the Junior Jury Prize, the Prize for the best chamber music and 5 out of 6 audience prizes. Since September 2021, Giorgi has been studying with Nelson Goerner in Geneva. He is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation and the Géza Anda-Foundation. In the 2022/23 season he is a Classeek Ambassador artist. He is supported by Bayer Kultur’s stARTacademy. Alongside his career as a classical pianist, he has created with his friends an electronic and experimental music group, Tsduneba, which means ‘temptation’ in Georgian.

Hugo Gonzalez is a Director of Public Outreach at the Success Stories Program, an organization he helped build while incarcerated. As an Independent Forensic Gang Expert, Hugo draws from his lived experience and years of professional training to support individuals transitioning out of gang lifestyles and into community-based healing and accountability. He has facilitated transformative workshops across California’s carceral system. Hugo’s work has been recognized by local government, the White House, and featured in national media, including CNN’s The Feminist on Cell Block Y and PBS’s Roadtrip Nation: Being Free.

Jake Friedman is a manager and producer who has contributed to numerous #1 albums, sold-out tours, and critically acclaimed works in music, theater, and film. He launched his own record label at the age of 19 and led We Are Free Management for a decade. In 2019, he co-founded Crush Works, where he manages artists across multiple disciplines while producing notable works like 'Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself' for Disney+ and 'Neal Brennan: Blocks' on Netflix.

James Runcie is a writer, filmmaker and literary curator. He is best known for the The Grantchester Mysteries, an English detective series adapted for 11 television series as Grantchester, and shown in over 120 countries. He is also the author of The Great Passion, about the music of Bach, and Tell Me Good Things, a moving memoir about his first wife. He has made films with Umberto Eco, Hilary Mantel, J.G. Ballard, Yasar Kemal and J.K.Rowling. He has also been Head of Literature at London’s South Bank Centre and Commissioning Editor for the Arts at BBC Radio 4.

Joe Sabia is a filmmaker and digital artist with an intuitive talent for conceiving viral concepts and formats. Joe is the creator and interviewing voice of Vogue’s iconic “73 Questions” series featuring 90 of the world's biggest A-list celebrities like Taylor Swift, Adele, Roger Federer, Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lawrence. He is also the interviewer of the annual “Billie Eilish, One Year Later” series for Vanity Fair. Joe directed his first feature film “FEDERER: 12 FINAL DAYS” for Amazon Studios on the retirement of Roger Federer from tennis, alongside director Asif Kapadia. He currently acts as a creative director for TEAM8 Studios, leading the development and execution of content for Roger Federer, Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton. Before Studio Sabia, Joe was the SVP of Creative Development at Condé Nast Entertainment, leading the creation of digital franchises like Wired's “Autocomplete Interviews”, Vanity Fair’s “Lie Detector Interviews”, Glamour’s “You Sang My Song”, GQ’s “Actually Me”. Joe is an advisor to Masterclass, The Moth, Outlier.org and Tonebase Piano. He runs his own creative strategy agency/production company called Studio Sabia, with clients like Audible, Youtube, Spotify, American Express, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Carnegie Hall, and UNICEF. Joe is a lifelong classical piano lover and amateur pianist and considers himself the unofficial cultural ambassador to the country of Georgia.

Jon Lee Anderson is an American author and journalist. He began his career in the 1980s reporting on Central America’s civil wars for TIME magazine and other journals.
As a New Yorker staff writer since 1998, he has covered numerous conflicts, including those in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, Mali, Liberia, and Central African Republic. He has reported extensively on Latin America as well, with a special focus on Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, and the Amazon. He is a juror of the Swiss-based True Story Award and a board member of the Colombia-based Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for Journalism.

Anderson has profiled a range of international public figures that include Javier Milei, Lula da Silva, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, King Juan Carlos, Hamid Karzai, Jalal Talabani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Abiy Ahmed and Charles Taylor, the Liberian war criminal. He has been honored with several awards from the Overseas Press Club, Spain’s Liberporess and Reporteros del Mundo prizes, and Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot award for his reporting on Latin America.

Anderson is the author of a biography of the iconic Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. Entitled Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, it was first published in 1997. While researching the book in Bolivia, he discovered the hidden location of Guevara's skeletal remains, after which they were exhumed and returned to Cuba.

Anderson has written several other books, including Guerrillas: Journeys In the Insurgent World; The Lion's Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan, and The Fall of Baghdad. He is also the co-author of Inside the League and War Zones: Voices from the World’s Killing Grounds with his brother Scott Anderson. His next book, To Lose a War: The Fall and Rise of the Taliban, will be published in August by Penguin Press.

Anderson lives in Dorset, England. He is married and has three children.

Joseph E. Stiglitz is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, the co-chair of The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT) and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. Stiglitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Stiglitz founded the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, a think tank on international development based at Columbia University, in 2000. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 2001 and received that university's highest academic rank (University Professor) in 2003. In 2011 Stiglitz was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2024 he was named an Honorary Academician by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society.

Julia Watson is a food writer and has contributed to publications including The Observer, The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, the Washington Post, Gourmet, The National Interest and other outlets. She has also broadcast on NPR. For almost a decade she was the Food Writer for international news agency United Press International and ran her own food web site, eatWashington.com. She twice won Gourmand International’s award for World’s Best French Cookbook. Bruno's Cookbook has just been published by Knopf in the US and by Quercus in the UK.

Julie Posetti is the Global Director of Research at the International Center for Journalists. She previously was a Senior Research Fellow at the RISJ and led the Journalism Innovation Project at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She researches at the intersection of journalism, digital media, and freedom of expression. Posetti is the author of Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age (UNESCO 2017) and the co-editor of Journalism, ‘Fake News’ and Disinformation (UNESCO 2018). She was awarded her PhD in December 2018, and her academic research has been published internationally in peer reviewed journals and scholarly books. Dr Posetti brings over two decades of high-level international journalism practice to her research, including time as a news editor, documentary reporter and national political correspondent with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She has been awarded the Australian Human Rights Awards for Radio, and the Australian National Press Club’s ‘German Award for Journalism’. More recently, her work has been published by The Atlantic, Harvard University’s Nieman Lab, the BBC, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian.

Liz Gibbons is Executive Editor of the BBC World Service’s Long Form and Investigations Department which produces a range of documentaries and podcasts including Africa Eye and BBC Eye, and also produces short form digital investigations. Liz is a former Deputy Editor of BBC Newsnight and previously ran the BBC’s World News TV channel.

Lucinda Bredin is Editor of Bonhams Magazine and Global Director of Communications for Bonhams, the international auction house. Trained at the Courtauld Institute, she has worked as an art curator in London, Milton Keynes and New York, and as an arts journalist on publications such as The Telegraph, The FT, Vogue, The Art Newspaper and The Observer. She was Arts Editor of The Week Magazine for 20 years. She is currently working on a collection of her interviews with museum directors.

Founder and CEO of News Revenue Hub, former Publisher of Voice of San Diego.

Michelle Darby has been facilitating stories through directing, acting, singing, and teaching for almost 40 years. She began teaching true, personal narrative storytelling at Stanford University in 2013. Most recently, she curates and coaches stories for WGBH/The World’s “Stories From the Stage” in Boston, MA. Ever since discovering theater in college, Michelle has been passionate about the power of personal stories to transform the teller and the listener.

Nabeelah Shabbir is a British-Pakistani freelance journalist, based in Amsterdam. As Senior Research Associate at the Washington DC-based International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Nabeelah collaborates with a small team of women investigating topics such as: disinformation in newsrooms around the world; journalism after the pandemic; and online violence against women journalists. She is co-author of a series of reports at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford about digital-born news media; innovation in news media in the Global South; and the impact of the Panama Papers investigation, three years on. At The Guardian, Nabeelah shared a British Journalism Award with the “Keep it in the Ground” team, which focused its reporting on fossil fuel divestment and climate change, in 2015. She was also a “European Young Journalist” of the year for her writing in Kosovo in 2008.

Nadia is a writer and pianist. She is a regular contributor to the Financial Times and her articles, essays, and criticism also appear in publications including The New Yorker, National Geographic, the Guardian, and the Times Literary Supplement among several others. She was editor-in-chief of The Calvert Journal, an award-winning magazine covering contemporary art, culture and society in Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Prior to that, she was Moscow correspondent for The Independent. Her first book, a memoir on music, life and the art of amateurism, will be out in 2025/26 by WW Norton and Faber & Faber.

Natalia Antelava is a co-founder of ZEG Fest and co-founder and editor-in-chief of Coda Story, an award-winning newsroom that covers the roots of global crises. Originally from Tbilisi, Natalia has been a BBC correspondent in the Caucasus, Central Asia, Middle East, Washington DC and India. She has covered the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, the wars in Iraq and in Eastern Ukraine and reported undercover from Burma, Yemen and Uzbekistan. Her investigations into human rights abuses in Central Asia, Iraq and the United States have won her a number of awards. In addition to a career in broadcast journalism, she has written for the Guardian, Forbes magazine and the New Yorker. She is currently John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

Nick Laparra is a storyteller, a consultant, and an activist. He is the founder of a multifaceted social impact company called Let’s Give A Damn and is the host of the Let’s Give A Damn podcast. On the podcast, Nick has conversations with activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, and all kinds of leaders—including Matthew McConaughey, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Rainn Wilson, Colman Domingo, ALOK, Katherine Hayhoe, Chelsea Clinton, and hundreds of other damn good humans.

Nick grew up in Guatemala, has spent years engaged in social impact work in dozens of countries, and now lives in New York City with his partner and children.

Nivine Sandouka is the Regional Director with the Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP). She is leading in the field of peace programming, and gender mainstreaming. Previously, she worked with the German Association for Development Cooperation – AGIAMONDO, as well as Oxfam GB, CARE International, IPCRI, and the Regional Organization for Peace Economics and Security – ROPES. She also runs an online-based initiative called ‘Judi- from me to you’ that aims to connect women together and volunteers in several civil society organizations.

To pursue her passion she is the Board Director of a newly established NGO called ‘Our Rights- Hoqoqona’ in Jerusalem, focusing on the civic and political rights of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, especially women. In addition, she currently sits as a board member for ‘The Jerusalem Center for Women’. She gives lectures to many international and national groups focusing on the political situation and East Jerusalem. She often participates in conferences, including J Street and Cannan Project in Berlin among others. She has written many articles focusing on the situation of women in EJ, youth, and finally around normalisation for the Palestine Israel Journal.

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader.

Oliver Bullough is an award-winning journalist and author from Wales, and the author of Coda's oligarchy newsletter. He specialises in writing about financial crime and the former Soviet Union, and his most recent books have been Butler to the World and Moneyland.

Paul Caruana Galizia is an award-winning investigative reporter at the Financial Times. His journalism has triggered parliamentary inquiries, the dismantling of a multi-billion pound hedge fund, and Amazon, Disney, and Netflix dropping projects with one of the world's most successful authors. His book about his mother Daphne, A Death in Malta, won the Cornelius Ryan Award.

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Platon is one of the world's most renowned portrait photographers, having photographed more world leaders than anyone else in history, including six American presidents. He has photographed over 30 covers for TIME Magazine, including their 2008 Vladimir Putin Person of The Year cover which was awarded 1st prize at the World Press Photo Contest, and most recently, their 2024 Donald Trump Person of The Year.

In 2008, Platon signed on as staff photographer to the New Yorker, winning a Peabody Award and two National Magazine Awards for his photo essays. He has published four books with subjects ranging from the power of world leaders to the dignity of those who serve in the US Military. In 2013, Platon founded The People’s Portfolio, a non-profit foundation dedicated to celebrating emerging leaders of human rights and civil rights around the world. The People’s Portfolio creates a visual language that breaks barriers, uplifts dignity, fights discrimination, and enlists the public to support human rights around the world.

Platon is currently on the board for Arts and Culture at the World Economic Forum. Platon’s life’s work is the subject of a Netflix documentary, Abstract: The Art of Design. His first film, My Body Is Not A Weapon, features survivors of wartime sexual violence and 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege. Platon’s archive of prominent African American civil rights leaders and cultural leaders was acquired by the Smithsonian in 2020.

Platon headlined at TED Vancouver in 2022, promoting curiosity over judgment. Platon’s second film, Portrait of a Stranger, was made in partnership with the United Nations, honoring the voices of refugees from around the world. Platon’s new book, The Defenders, was made in collaboration with The People’s Portfolio and celebrates human rights activists from around the world, published May 2024.

A Glasgow-native turned global storyteller, Quentin Sommerville has built a career reporting on the world's most dangerous hotspots. His early days as a Shanghai and Beijing correspondent honed his skills for navigating across cultures, while his three-year stint as the BBC’s Afghanistan correspondent brought him face-to-face with the human cost of conflict. Now based in Beirut, Sommerville covers the Middle East, from the ongoing conflicts in Libya and Syria to further afield in Eastern Ukraine. Through his insightful reporting, he gives a voice to those living in the midst of turmoil, offering viewers a glimpse into the dark reality of war.

Rachel Cockerell is an author and historian, born and raised in London. Her first book, Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, is the story of a forgotten project which brought 10,000 Russian Jews to Texas pre-WWI. Told entirely through interwoven primary sources, it has been called 'miraculous' by Zadie Smith and 'genre-bending' by Anne Applebaum. Melting Point is published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (6 May 2025). Rachel Cockerell has spoken about her work on CNN, the BBC, and at TEDx.

Rachel Corp is Chief Executive Officer of ITN, overseeing one of the largest independent television production companies in the UK. Prior to becoming CEO, Rachel was Editor of ITV News where she led the team winning a string of journalism awards for coverage in the UK and globally. Other roles during her ITN career include Editor of 5 News as well as ITV News London.  Rachel began her ITN career as a trainee, spending time at 5 News as part of its launch team before taking up a series of roles covering major stories in the UK and abroad for ITV News. Rachel also spent time in Russia as the BBC’s senior Moscow producer. Rachel leads on D&I and is passionate about change on and off screen, and also undertakes regular speaking appearances advocating for high-quality, independent, trusted news and the importance of Public Service Broadcasting. She is currently the chair of Women in Journalism as well as a UK Board Trustee at Women for Women International. Rachel is also an alumnus of LBS’s Senior Executive Programme (SEP).

Rena Effendi is a filmmaker, writer, an award-winning documentary photographer and author of two monographs “Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives along the Pipeline” and “Liquid Land”. Her photography has been described as having a deep sense of empathy with a quiet celebration of the strength of the human spirit. She is the laureate of the Prince Claus Fund award and has been shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Pictet award in Photography and Sustainability.

She spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos twice and is a member of its Cultural Leadership network. Effendi’s work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Saatchi Gallery, İstanbul Modern, Venice Biennial and NYC MOMA. Rena Effendi is a National Geographic Explorer and a frequent contributor to the National Geographic Magazine.

Ryan Broderick is a tech journalist and the author of the award-winning Garbage Day newsletter. He also writes for publications such as Fast Company, The Verge, and Rest Of World. His work has taken to over 22 countries and he's also met a lot of internet famous animals.

Sara M. Lomax is the co-founder and President of URL Media, a network of Black and Brown owned and led media organizations that share content, distribution and revenues to increase their long-term sustainability. In addition to her work with URL, Sara is CEO, President and Owner of WURD Radio, LLC, Pennsylvania’s only African-American owned talk radio station. Sara’s entire career has been focused on starting, growing and building Black media organizations to give voice and agency to communities that have been historically marginalized, overlooked and underserved. She is credited with transforming WURD Radio from a legacy talk radio station to a profitable multimedia communications company providing cutting edge, original programming on air, online and through community events. Over the past 3 years, the URL network has grown from an initial 8 members to 32 BIPOC media partners, reaching a total audience of over 25 million. Sara is the mother of three sons. She maintains a sense of equilibrium through a dedicated daily yoga and meditation practice.

Dr. Seema Jilani is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Hospitalist Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital, where she trained. Her humanitarian aid work has taken her to Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Bosnia, Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank over the past 20 years. She has treated migrants on board refugee rescue ships in the Mediterranean Sea, critically ill children on board medical evacuation flights, and responded on the scene after the 2020 explosion in the Port of Beirut, Lebanon. She was selected by the U.S. State Department as a Senior Fulbright Scholar to Istanbul, where she designed a curriculum for medical students on how to engage in media advocacy. Dr. Jilani has briefed the United Nations Security Council, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senior Officials at The White House and National Security Council. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and her work has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, The New Yorker, GQ Heroes, and The Guardian.

Shelley Thakral is the DRC spokesperson for the World Food Programme. She has also worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Facebook/Meta, World Health Organisation, UNICEF and was previously the WFP spokesperson in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Southern Africa and Yemen. She was a BBC journalist for 17 years and her postings have included; North America, the Middle East and South Asia.

Susan Morrison is the articles editor of The New Yorker and the author of the New York Times-bestselling biography "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live."  She is the former editor in chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY magazine. She lives in New York City.

Dr. Volodymyr Yermolenko is a Ukrainian philosopher, journalist and writer, President of PEN Ukraine, doctor of political studies (France), and PhD in philosophy (kandydat nauk, Ukraine). He is analytics director at Internews Ukraine and chief editor of UkraineWorld.org, a multimedia project in English about Ukraine. He is asociate professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He is a book writer of non-fiction and fiction, winner of Myroslav Popovych Prize (2021), Petro Mohyla Prize (2021), Yurii Sheveliov Prize (2018), Book of the Year prize in Ukraine (2023, 2018, 2015) and others. He is also head of the board of International Renaissance Foundation (Open Society Foundations) and a  public lecturer. Author of podcasts “Explaining Ukraine” and “Thinking in Dark Times” (in English), co-author (with Tetyana Ogarkova) of “Kultpodcast” (in Ukrainian). He is the author of numerous articles in international and Ukrainian media. Published in The Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, New York Times, Newsweek, Yermolenko also gives numerous comments to BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, France 24, France Culture, Radio France International etc. His texts and interviews have been published in Ukrainian, English, French, German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Norwegian, Czech, Greek, Chinese and others. Father of three daughters.

Yaroslav Trofimov is the author of three books of narrative non-fiction and one novel. He has worked around the world as a foreign correspondent of The Wall Street Journal since 1999, and has served as the newspaper’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent since 2018. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting in 2023 for his work on Ukraine, and in 2022, for his work on Afghanistan. His honors include an Overseas Press Club award for coverage of India as well as the Washington Institute gold medal for the best book on the Middle East. Yaroslav holds an MA from New York University. He is represented by Elias Altman at Massie & McQuilkin literary agency in New York.

Yoeri Albrecht joined De Balie as General & Artistic director in 2010. After having studied History, Philosophy, and International Law at Leiden University, he moved to Oxford to continue his studies in European Politics. In Oxford, he learned from the likes of Isaiah Berlin, George Steiner, and Peter Pulzer. Quickly, Yoeri became junior dean at Queen’s College, teaching both history and philosophy. It was already during his studies that Yoeri started writing pieces for Vrij Nederland, where he would continue to make contributions for 15 years to come, his writing ranging from interviews, columns, essays, and pieces of investigative journalism. Over the years, Yoeri has found a legion of ways to bring stories to light: through film, documentaries, theatre, books, radio, and television. Since 2010, he has watched De Balie grow from an Amsterdam-oriented debate center into a permanent and daily international art festival. De Balie has become an art producing cultural institute, still home to intellectuals, dissidents, and aspiring artists alike. Beyond being director of De Balie, Yoeri is founder and board member of the European Press Prize, chair of media investment company Veronica and he has chaired organizations such as Wordt Vervolgd Magazine, Amnesty International The Netherlands and Open Society Initiative for Europe. As a member of the board of Bellingcat he was responsible for bringing the British organization to Amsterdam.