Digital Learning Week 2023 - Speakers' biographies

Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO

Ms Stefania Giannini was appointed UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education in May 2018, becoming the top UN official in the field. In this position, she provides strategic vision and leadership for UNESCO in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the Education 2030 Agenda, encapsulated in Sustainable Development Goal 4.

With an academic background in the Humanities, Ms Giannini has served as Rector of the University for Foreigners of Perugia (2004 – 2012), being one of the first and youngest women to hold this position in Italy. As Senator of the Republic of Italy (2013 – 2018) and Minister of Education, Universities and Research (2014 – 2016), she developed and implemented a structural reform of the Italian education system, centred on social inclusion and cultural awareness. She has also been closely involved in an advisory capacity with the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation.

Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO

Dr. Tawfik Jelassi is the Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information. In this position, he is responsible for the organization’s programmes on building inclusive knowledge societies, leading digital transformation, strategizing the role of ICT in education, and fostering freedom of expression.

Dr. Jelassi holds a Ph.D. in information systems from New York University (USA) and postgraduate diplomas from the University of Paris Dauphine (France). He has extensive experience in higher education, scientific research, and information & communication technologies.

He was Programme Director and Professor of Strategy and Technology Management at IMD Business School in Lausanne (Switzerland, 2015 – 2021). Prior to that, he served as Minister of Higher education, Scientific Research and Information & Communication Technologies in the democratic transition government of Tunisia (2014 – 2015). Prior appointments include being Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ooredoo Telecom in Tunisia and Dean at Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris).

Assistant Director-General for Culture, UNESCO

Mr Ernesto Ottone R. is the Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO. Prior to this position, Mr Ottone R. served as Chile’s first Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage from 2015 to 2018. As Minister of Culture, he created a 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 R. 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.

Mr Ottone R. holds a Master’s degree in Management of Cultural Institutions and Policies from the University of Paris IX Dauphine (1998) and a Bachelor of Arts in theatre from the University of Chile (1995).

Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO

Ms Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO. She oversees the institution's contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity, and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fight against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science, including of neurotechnology and the internet of things. She has overseen the development and adoption of the first global instrument to promote the ethics of artificial intelligence, adopted by acclamation in 2021 by UNESCO's General Conference. She also launched the Global Forum against Racism, to catalyse the political support that member countries have given to this cause. On gender, she has advanced several initiatives, particularly to combat gender stereotypes and biases, including in new technologies.

Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Doreen Bogdan-Martin took office as Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union on 1 January 2023. Ms Bogdan-Martin has held leadership positions in the field of international telecommunications policy for over two decades, with a track-record of brokering innovative partnerships to expand digital inclusion and connectivity for everyone around the world. Following her historic election by ITU Member States in September 2022, she became the first woman ever to head the organization.

As ITU Secretary-General, she aims to drive innovative solutions, maximize ITU's relevance for its 193 Member States, intensify global cooperation on connecting the unconnected, and strengthen the alignment of ITU's programmes with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Ms Bogdan-Martin has consistently emphasized the need for digital transformation to achieve economic prosperity, job creation, skills development, gender equality, and socio-economic inclusion, as well as to build circular economies, reduce climate impact, and save lives.

Ms Bogdan-Martin holds a Master's in International Communications Policy from American University, and a post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Rector of the United Nations University 

Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala is the Rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Prior to this role, Prof. Marwala served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) from January 2018 through February 2023. He had previously served as that university’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalization (2013–2017) and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (2009–2013).

He holds a PhD degree from the University of Cambridge (UK), a Master of Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), and a Bachelor of Science degree (magna cum laude) from Case Western Reserve University (USA).

Among the awards that Prof. Marwala has received are the Order of Mapungubwe (South Africa’s highest honour) and the Academy of South Africa’s Science-for-Society Gold Medal. He was named the 2021 IT Personality of the Year by the Institute of IT Professionals South Africa.

Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Transforming Education Summit

Leonardo Garnier is currently the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on the Transforming Education Summit. He provides strategic advice on issues of transforming education and will work under the leadership of the Deputy Secretary-General/Chair of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group and liaises closely with the Summit Secretariat hosted by UNESCO to build momentum in advance of the Summit. He will also support the Secretary-General in consulting Governments and engaging stakeholders with a view to shaping concrete and ambitious deliverables to be presented at the Summit.

Mr. Garnier is a lecturer at the University of Costa Rica, where he has worked in the School of Economics and as a researcher at the Institute of Economic Science Research. He served as Costa Rica’s Minister for Planning and Economic Policy from 1994 to 1998, in addition to two terms as Minister for Education, from 2006 to 2014, during which time he advanced significant reforms of the education sector, both with respect to foundational skills like literacy, maths and science, and from the perspective of introducing an “ethics, aesthetics and citizenship” vision of education.  He achieved a significant increase in the rate of enrolment, with important investments in rural and indigenous education.

Mathematician and Philosopher, Member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques and Professor Emeritus, Sorbonne Université, France

Trained in both mathematics and philosophy in Paris (thèse d’Etat, 1975) and at UC Berkeley (PhD, 1973), where he held a Harkness fellowship, Daniel Andler taught mathematics before moving to positions in philosophy. He held the chair of philosophy of science and epistemology at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) — now Sorbonne Université — from 1999 until 2015, when he became emeritus, and is an honorary member of the Institut universitaire de France. He was elected to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in December 2016.

Daniel Andler founded and directed a number of institutions, among which the Department of Cognitive Studies (DEC) at Ecole normale supérieure, the research team “Sciences, normes, démocratie” within Sorbonne Université, the learned society Société de philosophie des sciences (SPS), the master’s program in cognitive science — the so-called Cogmaster —(ENS-EHESS-Universite de Paris), the Compas group, a think-tank within DEC, dedicated to exploring the synergies between cognitive science and ICT in education. He was a founding member of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (EuroSPP), and was until recently the director of the web journal Lato Sensu. Within the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, he has recently launched a 3-year project, (TESaCo) funded by Fondation Simone et Cino Del Duca, aiming at exploring and developing means of exercising collective intelligence to harness the emerging (digital, bio, nano…) technologies.

Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal and the Founder and Scientific Director of Mila – Québec Artificial Intelligence Institute, 2018 A.M. Turing Award laureate

Recognized worldwide as one of the leading experts in artificial intelligence, Yoshua Bengio is most known for his pioneering work in deep learning, earning him the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, “the Nobel Prize of Computing,” with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun.

He is a Full Professor at Université de Montréal, and the Founder and Scientific Director of Mila – Quebec AI Institute. He co-directs the CIFAR Learning in Machines & Brains program as Senior Fellow and acts as Scientific Director of IVADO.

In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Killam Prize and in 2022, became the computer scientist with the highest h-index in the world. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of London and Canada, Knight of the Legion of Honor of France and Officer of the Order of Canada.

Concerned about the social impact of AI and the objective that AI benefits all, he actively contributed to the Montreal Declaration for the Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence.

Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Stuart Russell is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California at Berkeley, holder of the Smith-Zadeh Chair in Engineering, and Director of the Center for Human-Compatible AI and the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public. He is a recipient of the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award and Research Excellence Award and held the Chaire Blaise Pascal in Paris. In 2021 he received the OBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and gave the Reith Lectures. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His book "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach" (with Peter Norvig) is the standard text in AI, used in 1500 universities in 135 countries. His research covers a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence, with a current emphasis on the long-term future of artificial intelligence and its relation to humanity. He has developed a new global seismic monitoring system for the nuclear-test-ban treaty and is currently working to ban lethal autonomous weapons.

Yann LeCun is VP & Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences & the Center for Data Science.

He was the founding Director of FAIR and of the NYU Center for Data Science. He received an Engineering Diploma from ESIEE (Paris) and a PhD from Sorbonne Université. After a postdoc in Toronto he joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1988, and AT&T Labs in 1996 as Head of Image Processing Research. He joined NYU as a professor in 2003 and Meta/Facebook in 2013. His interests include AI, machine learning, computer perception, robotics, and computational neuroscience. He is the recipient of the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio) for "conceptual and engineering breakthroughs that have made deep neural networks a critical component of computing", a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the French Académie des Sciences.

Minister of Education, Ghana

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum is the Minister of Education of Ghana. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Land Economy/Business Administration from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, a Master’s degree in Education Management from the University of La Verne, California and a PhD in Educational Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Southern California.

In March 2017, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to serve as Deputy Minister for Education. In 2019, he was voted the Best Performing Deputy Minister of the Year by two research bodies: Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability and FAKS Investigative Services. Dr. Adutwum was appointed Minister of Education in 2021.

Dr. Adutwum is passionate about education and intends to bring access, equity, quality and relance to education in Ghana. He believes that a whole school reform, emphasis on STEM/STEAM, a curriculum review to make Ghanian graduates fit for purpose will drive the socio-economic development of Ghana and getting it right will turn the fortunes of the nation around.

Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, UAE

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama has been appointed as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in October 2017, and then was appointed as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications in July 2020. His responsibilities include enhancing the government performance levels by investing in the latest technologies and tools of artificial intelligence and applying them in various sectors.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama is Spearheading UAE efforts to be positioned as a global leader in Digital economy, With the focus to enhance UAEs digital economy contribution to the GDP. His Excellency is also focused on strengthening the UAE’s position as a global reference in remote work applications.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama is currently the Managing Director of the World Government Summit. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation and Deputy Managing Director of the Foundation. He is also Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy.

Vice Minister of Education, People’s Republic of China

CHEN Jie was born in July 1965. He has a postgraduate education and holds the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Communist Party of China (CPC) member.

He is currently alternate member of the 20th CPC Central Committee, member of the CPC Leading Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education.

Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mauritania

H.E. Ms Leela Devi Dookun Luchoomun has served as the Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology since 2019. She has led a major reform of the Education System cutting across pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary subsectors.  A major review of the technical and vocational training subsector is also being carried out. She has also served as Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Minister of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions from May 2010 to July 2011, and Minister of Arts and Culture from December 2004 to July 2005. She has been an elected member of legislature since 2000 and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary from October 2000 to December 2004.

Minister of Education, Finland

Minister of Education, Anna-Maja Henriksson, heads the Ministry of Education and Culture. She is responsible for early childhood education and care, general education, vocational education and training and religious affairs. Henriksson graduated with a Master's degree in Law from the University of Helsinki in 1987.

Henriksson entered Parliament in 2007. During her first term in office, she was vice chair of the Legal Affairs Committee and member of the Employment and Equality Committee. Outside Parliament, she chaired the Swedish Assembly of Finland from 2009 to 2011. Henriksson was elected vice chair of the Swedish People's Party in 2010.

Henriksson was elected to Parliament for the second term in 2011 and was also appointed Minister of Justice. She served as Minister of Justice for eight years in several governments. In 2011–2015, she also served as the minister responsible for Åland. In 2015, Henriksson was elected for the third term and became chair of her parliamentary group. In 2016, she was elected chair of the Swedish People's Party. She again served as the minister responsible for Åland from 2019 to 2022.

Minister of Education, Bangladesh

H.E. Dr. Dipu Moni is the first female Education Minister of Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, serving since January 2019. She was the first female Foreign Minister of Bangladesh as well from 2009 to 2013. She is a lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court, holding Master of Laws from the University of London and LLB from Bangladesh National University. She also holds Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and completed a course on Negotiations and Conflict Resolutions from Harvard University. She worked for women's rights and entitlements, health legislation, health policy and management, health financing, strategic planning, and health and human rights under the Constitution and law in Bangladesh's economic and social development programs and foreign policy issues regionally and globally. Dr. Moni is currently leading a massive transformation in the education sector of Bangladesh that entails national curriculum reform exercise, early childhood care and education, fostering digital education and minimizing the learning loss attenuated from the Covid-19 crisis. She is also a Leaders’ Group member of the transforming education discourse implemented by UNESCO.

Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Namibia

Hon. Ester Anna-Liisa Shiwoomwenyo Nghipondoka (Masters of Education, Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Arts) is the Minister of Education, Arts and Culture. Hon. Nghipondoka has been serving the Ministry for close to fourty years. Before her appointment as Minister, Hon. Nghipondoka was the Deputy Minister of Education and prior to that appointment, Acting CEO for Namibia Training Authority (NTA). Hon. Nghipondoka has previously served as the Deputy Minister of Education, Arts and Culture from 2015 to 21 March 2020. She was Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Namibia Training Authority from 2013 to 2014. Prior to this, she served as the Director of Education: Omusati Region from 2008 to 2013. In 2003, Hon. Nghipondoka served as the Deputy Director of Education Oshikoto Region, and from 2004 to 2008, was promoted to Director of Education: Oshikoto Region. Hon. Nghipondoka acted as Senior Education Officer: Ondangwa West from 1996 to 2002. Prior to these endeavours, Hon. Nghipondoka served as a teacher from 1982-1992, then as a Principal of Otjikoto Secondary School in 1995.

Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone

Mr. Conrad Omalikeh Sackey serves as The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education and doubles as The Chair of the Sierra Leone Teaching Service Commission.

Prior to his current roles he was The Chief Executive Officer of the Windsor Fellowship, a national education charity; Head of Information and Advice at Anglia Ruskin University; Strategic Manager, London East Connexions Partnership, a sub-regional partnership that coordinated integrated student support in Education; and an Additional Inspector of the Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills in the United Kingdom.

He holds a MA in Education from University College London, Institute of Education; B.Sc. (Econ) Hons from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; and is a Chartered Director, Institute of Directors, UK. Additionally, he is a Board Member of the African Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Member of Institute of Directors, and a 2008 Travelling Fellow of Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

Co-Chair of the SDG4-Education 2030 High-Level Steering Committee Sherpa Group, Chief Minister and Chief Innovation Officer, Sierra Leone

Dr. David Moinina Sengeh serves as the Chief Minister and the Chief Innovation Officer of the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone. As Chief Minister, his role is to serve as adviser to the President and Vice President, and to work with the other Ministries, Departments and Agencies to deliver on the Government's agenda. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Sengeh served as Sierra Leone’s Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education from 2019 to 2023.

Internationally, Dr. Sengeh serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board for UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report and is a member of the executive committee of the Board of the Global Partnership for Education. He also serves as co-chair of the technical committee for UNESCO's High-Level Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education, and served as chair of the advisory board for the 2022 Transforming Education Summit.

Dr. Sengeh has been recognized as a senior TED Fellow, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, an Obama Foundation Africa Leader and in Forbes 30 Under 30 in Technology. Dr. Sengeh obtained his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Biomechatronics where he developed award-winning technology for human augmentation in designing comfortable prosthetic interfaces.

Director, Future of Learning and Innovation, UNESCO

Sobhi Tawil is the Director of Future of Learning and Innovation at UNESCO headquarters in Paris where he currently leads the Futures of Education initiative. He has some 30 years of experience in teaching, education policy analysis, research and program management with diverse institutions and organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (Geneva), the Network for Education Policy Research Review (NORRAG), the International Institute for Higher Education (Rabat), as well as UNESCO. Since joining UNESCO in 2002, Sobhi first headed the Capacity Building Program for Curriculum Development at the International Bureau of Education, before leading the Education Program for the Maghreb countries at the Rabat Cluster Office. Since 2011, he has been leading the Education Research and Foresight programme. Sobhi holds a PhD in Education and Development from the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva.

Director, Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report

Manos Antoninis is the Director of the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report since 2017. He was previously responsible for the monitoring section of the report. He coordinated the financing gap estimates for the 2030 education targets, the projections on the achievement of universal primary and secondary education completion, and the World Inequality Database on Education. He has been representing the report team in the Technical Cooperation Group on SDG 4 indicators, which he is currently co-chairing. 

Prior to joining the team he worked for 10 years on public finance, monitoring and evaluation projects in education including: a public expenditure tracking and service delivery survey of secondary education provision in Bangladesh; the evaluation of a basic education project in the western provinces of China; the mid-term evaluation of the Education For All Fast Track Initiative; the annual reporting of progress in the implementation of the Second Primary Education Development Project in Bangladesh; a basic education capacity building programme in six states in Nigeria; the evaluation of an in-service, cluster-based teacher training programme in Pakistan; and the country study of the Out of School Children Global Initiative in Indonesia. He holds a DPhil in Economics for a study of technical education and the labour market in Egypt, completed at the Centre for the Study of African Economies of the University of Oxford.

Director, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)

Mr Martín Benavides is the Director of the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). Prior to joining IIEP, he served as Minister of Education in Peru, Superintendent of Higher Education, and Director of the Peruvian think tank Group for the Analysis of Development. Mr Benavides holds a PhD in Sociology from Pennsylvania State University. He has also been a visiting scholar at Stanford University (CASBS) and Ceped-IRD-Université de Paris.

Chief, Unit for Technology and AI in Education, Future of Learning and Innovation, UNESCO

Dr Fengchun Miao is the Chief of the Unit for Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Education at Education Sector at UNESCO and a Professor (on leave) of Beijing Normal University, China. He leads the Education Sector’s programmes on technological innovation in education including the development of AI competencies, ethical principles on the use of AI in education, and supporting digital learning policy development. His achievements include leading the organization of 4 international conferences on AI and education (2019 – 2022) and the development and adoption of the Beijing Consensus on AI and Education; the launch and organization of Mobile Learning Week for 9 years; the development and adoption of Qingdao Declaration on leveraging ICT to achieve SDG 4; directly led the training and technical advice to over 70 countries on national digital learning policies. He is the leading author of over 20 UNESCO publications and reports.

Senior Advisor, Strategic Engagement and Initiatives, Executive Office, ITU

Alex currently serves in the Executive Office of the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, where he is responsible for the UN Affairs Division, the World Summit on the Information Society team, the Marketing & Partners Relations Division, and the Giga and Partner2Connect initiatives. From 2019-2022, Alex served as Senior Strategy Advisor and Chief, Special Initiatives, in the Office of the Director of the Telecommunications Development Bureau. Prior to joining the ITU, Alex worked in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. From 2018-2019, he served as President of CG/LA Infrastructure, a US based company that promotes and develops infrastructure projects around the world. From 2000 to 2018, Alex was a member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum, where he held several leadership roles including the development and rollout of the Forum’s Global System Initiatives. He is a licensed Professional Engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Project Officer, Future of Learning and Innovation, UNESCO

Mr Mark West works in UNESCO’s Education Sector where he examines how technology can improve the quality, equity, and accessibility of learning. He develops projects and publications to help establish new and more human-centered trajectories for education in a digital age. Mark manages a team that is studying the ways technologies change educational beliefs and practices with a particular focus on implications for the right to education, privatization, surveillance and control, examinations, and teacher training. He has long worked to make digital solutions more inclusive for people with low literacy skills, close digital skills gender divides, and advise governments about the uses and misuses of new technologies for education. He has written several publications about education and technology. Prior publications of note include 'I’d Blush if I Could' (2019); 'Reading in the Mobile Era' (2014); and 'UNESCO Guidelines for Mobile Learning' (2013). Prior to joining UNESCO, Mr West researched education in Azerbaijan as a Fulbright Fellow and worked as a teacher and teacher trainer in the United States. He is a graduate of Stanford University.

UNESCO Chair on e-Learning, International University of La Rioja (UNIR), Spain

Daniel Burgos is a Full Professor of Technologies for Education & Communication, Vice-rector for International Research, Director of the Research Institute for Innovation & Technology in Education (UNIR iTED, http://ited.unir.net); and UNESCO Chair on eLearning, at Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR). He is a Professor at An-Najah National University (Palestine), Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL, Colombia), North-West University (South-Africa), Coventry University (United Kingdom), and Beijing National University (China). He works as a consultant for United Nations (UNECE), European Commission & Parliament, and Russian Academy of Science. Daniel has over 300 publications, and over 50 books. He is an expert on Learning Analytics and AI and holds 12 doctorates, including in Education and Computer Science.

Director, Research and Consulting, National eLearning Center, Saudi Arabia

Dr. Fahad Alazni is the Director of Research and Consulting at National eLearning Center (NeLC). He holds a Ph.D. in Instructional Technology and a Master’s degree in Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research from Northern Illinois University in addition to a Master’s degree in Educational/Instructional Technology from Monash University. Dr. Fahad has worked as a faculty member in higher education at the University of Hail and also as an e-learning consultant in K-12 education for Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education. His interests lie in e-learning frameworks & quality standards, adaptive learning, and technology adoption.

Student, XôDengue project, Brazil

Born in Florianópolis, Brazil, Pedro Philippi Araujo is an Electrotechnics graduate at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina (IFSC) and a Computer Science undergraduate student at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Pedro joined the XôDengue project because of his interest in Artificial Intelligence and desire to help his city in the combat against the Dengue epidemic. He received a scholarship through the PIBIC program (UFSC/CNPq) for initiating scientific research. The XôDengue Project is part of the Computing at School initiative within the Department of Informatics and Statistics at the Federal University envisioning to bring Computing and Artificial Intelligence education to school students in Brazil.

Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor at the Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Annika Bergviken Rensfeldt is Senior Lecturer in Applied Information Technology at the University of Gothenburg and Associate Professor in Education. Her research critically engages in how platforms and infrastructures in education affects education, digital equality and teacher work.

Leading expert for the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers

Mr Mutlu Cukurova is a Professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence at University College London. His work aims to address the pressing socio-educational challenge of preparing people for a future with AI systems that will require a great deal more than the routine cognitive skills currently prized by many education systems. Mr Cukurova is the Director of the UCLAT team at UCL Knowledge Lab and was the programme co-chair of the International Conference of AI in Education in 2020. He published widely in top-tier journals and conferences of the fields of AI in Education providing significant theoretical and methodological contributions. He currently serves as the editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology and an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

Vice President, Alibaba Cloud Education

Guijing Huang is the Senior Vice President of Alibaba Cloud Education. With a degree of Doctor in Educational Technology, Huang also has academic background in computer science, artificial intelligence, and pedagogy. She also has ten years of experience in education technology management. Currently at Alibaba Cloud, Huang is responsible for the practical innovation of deploying artificial intelligence in the field of education. She is committed to education digitalization and the creation of future schools.

President of the Center of Research and Development, Lebanon

Ms Hiyam Ishac is a Lebanese academic and researcher who has dedicated her career to the advancement of education and research in Lebanon. She is currently the president of the Center of Research and Development (CERD). She earned multiple degrees at various Lebanese universities, which culminated in a doctorate in educational sciences. After completing her studies, Ishak began her academic career as a lecturer and quickly rose through the ranks, earning tenure and becoming a full professor. Throughout her academic career, Ishak has been a prolific researcher, authoring numerous books, articles and publications on a variety of topics. As President of the Center of Research and Development, Ishac has played a key role in supporting research and innovation in Lebanon, and is currently leading the Lebanese curriculum reform.

Leading expert for the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers

Ms Shafika Isaacs is Professor of Educational Practice at the University of Johannesburg. She is a specialist in the research, monitoring and evaluation of a wide range of digital learning and mobile learning initiatives in developing countries, especially in Africa. She is chair of the Telkom Foundation and has served as an expert for a number of initiatives including UNESCO’s Futures Schools and Mobile Learning Expert Group, as well as on the Broadband Commission Working Group on School Connectivity. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Johannesburg. Her research focuses on the use of technologies for education and human development in Africa.

Expert for the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for School Students

Ms Natalie Lao is the Executive Director of the App Inventor Foundation, an educational nonprofit founded by researchers and developers at MIT and Google with the mission of empowering students to create meaningful technologies that can transform their lives and uplift their communities. She received her B.S., M.Eng., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, where her research on databases, AI, ML, and educational frameworks have been featured by MIT News. At MIT, she was Co-creator and Instructor for the undergraduate course 6.S198: Deep Learning Practicum and led the trajectory team for the MIT Inclusive AI Literacy and Learning project.

Director, Institut de la Francophonie pour l’éducation et la formation (IFEF-OIF), Senegal

Mona Laroussi is Director of the Institut de la Francophonie pour l'éducation et la formation (IFEF) in Dakar (Senegal), a structure of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).  She holds a doctorate and habilitation in computer science, specializing in educational technology. Mona Laroussi's research activities focus on Computer Environments for Human Learning (EIAH). She has co-authored several chapters and publications in international journals and conferences.

Head of Strategic Initiatives, EMEIA Education, Apple

Alexa has worked internationally on education technology for more than 20 years across the globe in both the public and private sectors. She has advised governments in more than 100 countries in digital transformation in education. She leads strategy at Apple for engaging and supporting education system leaders as they transform their education systems using technology. Prior to Apple, she worked at Microsoft for 9 years on digital transformation in education and digital skills programs with Ministries of Education, UNICEF, schools and universities. She also spent 10 years at European Schoolnet, the network of 30 Ministries of Education in Europe, as well as UNESCO and OECD on issues related to education technology policy and practice. 

Alexa is a former executive advisor for Hewlett-Packard, the European Centre for Women and Technology, the European e-Skills Association, Digit-ALL, and UCL Educate. She has a Masters in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, an MBA from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Belgium, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education Technology from the Institute of Education, University College London. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Education and Technology at the same institution.

Founder and Chief Education Technology Scientist, Squirrel AI

Derek is one of the top 30 Chinese artificial intelligence entrepreneurs and the deputy director of the Intelligence Education Committee of the Association of Automation. He has been invited to give speeches at Stanford Business School, UCLA Anderson School of Business, Singularity University, and Peking University's EMBA program. Squirrel Ai was published as a case study at Stanford Business School. Derek is also the co-Author of Rewiring Education Chinese version which written by John Couch, the former VP of Apple Education.

As a serial entrepreneur, he co-founded the first education company listed in China’s A-shares market. Derek also created several ingenious educational innovations in the world,‘Concepts on Nano-scaled knowledge Components’, ‘AI-Model-Adapted Learning-Skills-Decomposition Methods’, ‘Reconstructing Knowledge Space Theory (KST) with Students’, ‘Reasons for Mistakes’, ‘Algorithms on Calculating the Relevance of Probability between Non-relevant Knowledge Components’.

Director, TECH4ALL Digital Inclusion Office, Huawei Technologies

Mingju Liu is the TECH4ALL Program Director for Huawei Technologies. She has over 18 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, with a particular focus on wireless network and core network solution, continues to support mobile business of global operators. Mingju has worked in various regions, including West European, Eurasia, and Region China. She has served in positions in the past - Account Director, Deputy Representative in Uzbekistan office, Director of Global Cloud Communication Market Management Dept., Director of Core network in Eurasia Region, Director of Wireless and Core network BU in West European Region. etc.

CEO, Merlyn Mind, USA

Dr. Satya Nitta is the CEO and co-founder of Merlyn Mind, a deep tech generative AI company working on AI assistants and platforms. A technologist and a business leader, he was previously the global head of AI solutions for learning at IBM Research and led teams in the development of conversational systems, speech recognition, and natural language understanding. Dr. Nitta received his PhD in Chemical Engineering and holds over 100 US patents. He was named as the IEEE Ace “Innovator of the Year” and has received several technology awards for his work. He is a board member of the Biological and Chemical Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has published over 40 publications and has over 5,000 citations of his technical work.

Chairperson of the Beijing Royal Charity Foundation, Vice President & CEO of Fazheng Group, Executive Director of Beijing Royal School

As a co-founder of Fazheng Group, PAN Jun has been actively engaged in establishing a pioneering example of welfare initiatives. With her entrepreneurship, Fazheng Group has founded Beijing Royal School, the first private K-12 international school in China, and Beijing Royal Integrative Medicine Hospital, the first private 3-A comprehensive hospitals in Beijing, as a successful model in the sectors of people's livelihood and public welfare. Her commitment has empowered the Group to rise as a leader and pacesetter in a rapidly growing market.

Under the leadership of Ms. Pan Jun, Fazheng Group has been an active participant in the Belt and Road Initiative and has promoted the international development of traditional Chinese medicine. It has set up overseas offices in locations such as North Carolina and Boston in the United States, London in the United Kingdom, and Paris in France. Furthermore, Ms. Pan has overseen the operation of overseas schools in the United States, while concurrently crafting a global strategic collaboration and developmental blueprint for the Group.

Director for the Directorate of Education and Skills, OECD

Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris. He initiated and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and other international instruments that have created a global platform for policy-makers, researchers and educators across nations and cultures to innovate and transform educational policies and practices.

Before joining the OECD, he was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement”.  He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg. 

Leading expert for the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for School Students

Ms Kelly Shiohira has worked internationally in the fields of language and literacy acquisition, teacher development and technology for educational improvement, and has applied these areas of expertise to curriculum and policy design, strategic planning, implementation, research, and monitoring and evaluation in the education sector. Her recent work includes contributions to the UNESCO publication Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Compendium of Promising Initiatives and lead authorship of Interoperable Data Ecosystems: An International Review to inform a South African Innovation.

Chief Evangelist, Hugging Face

Julien is currently Chief Evangelist at Hugging Face. He's previously spent 6 years at Amazon Web Services where he was the Global Technical Evangelist for AI & Machine Learning. Prior to joining AWS, Julien served for 10 years as CTO/VP Engineering in large-scale startups. 

Chief Technology Officer, Tomorrow Advancing Life Education Group (TAL)

Mr. Mi Tian has served as the Company’s vice chief technology officer since December 2019, and has been responsible for technical system management. Mr. Tian joined the Company in May 2019 and had been in charge of product technology for Xueersi Peiyou. Prior to his role with the Company, Mr. Tian served as a senior technology director for Alibaba from 2016, the vice president of technology for AutoNavi from 2014 to 2016, and the general manager of AutoNavi’s big data department from August 2013 to 2014. Before that, Mr. Tian worked at Tencent from 2006 to 2013, including serving as research and product director for Tencent Map starting from 2011. Mr. Tian received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Beihang University in computer science.

CEO, Translated, Italy

Marco Trombetti is a computer scientist, serial entrepreneur, and investor. In 1999, together with Isabelle Andrieu, he founded Translated to solve one of humanity's greatest challenges: to allow everyone to understand and be understood in their own language. Translated pioneered the use of artificial intelligence to support professional translators and is one of the leading translation companies today, with customers including Google, AirBnb and Uber.

Marco also co-founded Pi Campus, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology startups, mostly in the AI field, with 49 investments in its portfolio ranging from Europe to the United States. In 2017 Pi Campus launched Pi School, an innovative educational reality to create a new class of AI specialists. Pi School offers personalized coaching from AI world-renowned authorities to talented engineers. Marco is also the author The New Prince – Why and How to Startup, a collection of essays illustrating the counterintuitive reasons and strategies that have led the new generations of entrepreneurs to success.

Tech Explorer, Public Evaluator, Board Member, Future of Algorithms, Research & Policy

Yonah is a technology explorer, public expert and influencer for the algorithmic spectrum - algorithms, tech and policies addressing human capacity, wellbeing, ability, such as social and human-centered AI and robotics. It includes the co-creation of emerging technologies and algorithms, screening, evaluating and cooperating with national, public and private projects and funds, co-contributing to policy, ethics and research frameworks, curating experiential projects and experiments. Driven by their own journey, Yonah has spent over 60 world appearances and commentary to bring awareness to social and assistive technologies, AI and robotics for cognitive disabilities, health, education, work.



Prior to this, Yonah was cofounder of Hardwaretech think tank, served as an innovator in residence, entrepreneur and expert for a variety of technology and innovation ecosystems and projects, was featured by the World Economic Forum, Forbes, OECD, curated and boarded Summits of AI for humanity, city challenges and initiatives.

Director of Research, Policy and Advocacy, Education International (EI)

Antonia Wulff is Director of Research, Policy and Advocacy at Education International (EI), the world federation of teacher unions. EI represents more than 32 million teachers and education support personnel in 178 countries. 

Antonia’s work at EI covers a broad range of policy areas related to quality education and the status and rights of education workers. She represents the teaching profession on the SDG4 High-Level Steering Committee Sherpa group and on the board of the Global Campaign for Education. Antonia is also the editor of Grading Goal Four – Tensions, Threats and Opportunities in the Sustainable Development Goal on Quality Education.