2019

György Matolcsy

Governor
Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Dr. György Matolcsy serves his second term as the governor of Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary. He was nominated to the position in 2013 and his tenure was renewed in 2019 for another 6 years. Since 2013 he is also a member of the Fiscal Council. Prior to his current position he was minister of national economy between 2010-2013. In 2007 he founded the Hungarian Economic Development Institute, which he headed for 3 years. Between 2000-2002 he was Hungary’s minister of economic affairs. Mr Matolcsy is the author of the Széchenyi Plan, a comprehensive strategy aiming to promote the economic growth in Hungary.
He was director of the Institute for Growth (2002-2010) and its predecessor organisation, the Privatisation Research Institute from 1995 to 2000. From the end of 1998 he has been a member of the economic advisory body of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Starting in 1991 he spent 3 years as a member of the Board of Governors at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) representing the Hungarian Government. In 1990 he joined the Office of the Prime Minister and served as the personal economic advisor to Prime Minister József Antall.
Acknowledging his efforts in promoting economic development in Hungary, he was awarded the Barankovics Commemorative Coin in 2013.
He graduated at Karl Marx University of Economics in 1977 and obtained his Doctorate degree in 1984.
Mr. Matolcsy is actively involved in educational activities. He is a frequent lecturer at top foreign and Hungarian universities. He is an honorary doctor at the University of Debrecen and the University of Kaposvár, and honorary member of Fudan Development Institute (FDDI) of Fudan University and of the FDDI International Advisory Board of Shanghai Forum.
Mr Matolcsy is the author of numerous publications, articles and books. His most recent book, Economic Balance and Growth was published in 2015, whereas his other books include Bringing Up the Rear (Éllovasból sereghajtó; 2008), American Empire (Amerikai birodalom; 2004), and Our Living Memories (Élő emlékeink; 2003).

Péter Szijjártó

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Hungary

Born on 30 October 1978 in Komárom. In 1997, he graduated from the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine Gymnasium in Győr, after which in 2002 he received a degree in Foreign Affairs from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration.
He has been a Member of Parliament for Fidesz since 2002, and in 2018 began his fifth term in Parliament. From 2006 to 2010 he was Fidesz Communications Director, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson from 2010 to 2012, and was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2012 to 2014.
In June 2014 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and since 23 September 2014 has served as Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is a Roman Catholic and is married with two sons. He was a registered futsal player, stepping onto the field for two 1st division and eighty-five 2nd division games between 2011 and 2016.

Veronika Skvortsova

Minister of Healthcare
Russian Federation

Dr Veronika Skvortsova has served as the Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation between May 2012 and January 2020. She was appointed as the Director of the Federal Biomedical Agency on 22 January.
She graduated from the 2nd Pirogov Moscow State Medical Institute in 1983 and completed a Postgraduate Clinical Residency Programme and an Advanced Postgraduate Programme specializing in neuropathology. In 1994, she qualified as a higher category neurologist. After graduating, she worked for the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute (the Russian State Medical University since 1991) for 25 years. Veronika Skvortsova became head of one of Russia’s first neurology emergency services at Moscow’s 1st municipal hospital established on the basis of the neurology clinic of the 2nd Moscow State Medical Institute in 1989. In 1989–1995, she served as assistant and, in 1995–1997, as assistant professor at the Neuropathology Department of the Russian State Medical University. She became Head of the Fundamental and Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery Department in 1997.
Veronika Skvortsova was appointed Director of the Russian Stroke Research Institute in 2005. She was Deputy Minister of Healthcare and Social Development from 2008 to 2012.
She is vice-president and co-founder of the National Stroke Association, director of the World Stroke Organization and secretary general of the European Stroke Council. She is a Doctor of Medicine, Professor, and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Veronika Skvortsova is an Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation. She has been awarded an Order of Honour and won the Pirogov Prize and Moscow Government Prize in Medicine. She is the author of more than 400 research papers and holds seven patents for her inventions

László Palkovics

Minister for Innovation and Technology
Hungary

Prof. Dr. László Palkovics, Minister for Innovation and Technology since 2018, previously served as the State Secretary for Higher Education and State Secretary for Education. As Government Commissioner, he is responsible for the development of the Debrecen Automotive Centre and the coordination of tasks related to the Hungarian section of the Budapest-Belgrade Railway Reconstruction Project.
Earlier, he worked at Knorr-Bremse from 1995: initially as the Developmental Director of the Hungarian subsidiary’s Research and Development Institute and later as the company’s Director for European Electronic Development between 2001 and 2003 in Germany, before being appointed as its European Research and Development Director in 2003.
His field of research is the dynamics and stability of vehicles, controlled vehicle systems, intelligent vehicle and traffic systems, and applied control theory.
In 1996, he was chosen as the Secretary-General of the Association of the Hungarian Automotive Industry, before becoming the president of the National Technological Development Committee in 2001.
Since 1992, he worked as an instructor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economy, serving as the head of the Vehicle Department at the Faculty of Transportation Engineering from 1994 to 2002, and was subsequently the head of the Vehicles and Vehicle Manufacturing Faculty from 2013. Between 2009 and 2012, he also filled the position of Strategic Deputy Rector at the Kecskemét College.
Since 2000, he has been a Scientific Administrator at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Institute for Computer Science and Control (MTA SZTAKI) and a Research Professor at the Széchenyi István University since 2010. He received the Hungarian Academy of Science's doctoral title in 1998 and has been its corresponding member since 2006 and its full time member since 2013.
He received the Széchenyi Award in 2001, followed by the Gábor Dénes Award and the Bánki Donát Award, both in 2009. He received the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, Officer’s Cross in 2013.
He is fluent in four languages.

Andrey Beliyaninov

Chairman of the Management Board
Eurasian Development Bank

Andrei Belianinov graduated from the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of the National Economy (1978) with a major in economics (specialization in finance and banking). He holds PhDs in economics (2005) and political science (2015). After graduation, Mr Beliyaninov served on the Committee for State Security (KGB) of the USSR.
Throughout his professional career, Mr. Belianinov has served as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at REA Bank (1992-1994), Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Management Board at Novikombank (1994-1999), Deputy General Director of the Promexport Federal State Unitary Enterprise (1999-2000), Director of the Rosoboronexport Federal State Unitary Enterprise (2000-2004), Director of the Federal Service for Defence Contracts (2004-2006), and Head of the Federal Customs Service (2006-2016).
Since 1 December 2017 Mr. Belianinov has been Chairman of the Management Board at the EDB. Andrey Beliyaninov has received governmental, institutional, and international awards, as well as awards from the Orthodox Churches.

Róbert Ésik

President
Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency

Róbert Ésik is an economist and a finance & investment analysis expert. He graduated at the Corvinus University of Budapest and earned a master’s degree at the Université Panthéon Assas in Paris.
He spent almost 15 years in various positions at the largest ICT companies of the world, such as Alcatel, Siemens, Nokia and Amazon. As the country director of Nokia Solutions and Networks he played a key role in the Hungarian subsidiary becoming one of Nokia’s most important technology development centres.
Since October 2014 he has been directing the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA). Róbert’s professional, as well as personal ambition is to further promote his homeland as a favourable investment location and by so doing contribute to Hungary’s economic and social development.

Sergey A. Karaganov

Dean
School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs
National Research University Higher School of Economics

Sergey A. Karaganov: Dr.Hab (History), Scientific Head and Dean of the Faculty (School) of International Economics and Foreign Affairs of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. He has authored and edited more than 25 books and around 500 articles. Some of his positions include: Member of the Academic Council of the MFA of Russia, Member of the Academic and Advisory Council, Russian Security Council, Member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of Russia. In 1990s he was the member of the Presidential Council of Russia. In 2014-2015 Sergei Karaganov was a member of the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project under the OSCE. Scientific interests: Soviet/Russian foreign and defense policies, international political economy security, Greater Eurasia, USA and Europe, new global problems.

István Balogh

Deputy State Secretary for Security Policy
Hungary

István Balogh Ph.D is Deputy State Secretary for Security Policy. He also serves as the Political Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Some of his positions include Director General for Security Policy and Non-proliferation at the Ministry of Foreing Affairs and Trade, Senior lecturer at the National University of Public Service (former National Defense University), Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institue of International Affairs (HIIA), Editor in Chief of the Security Policy Review (Biztonságpolitikai Szemle).

Wei Lin

Vice Dean
Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence
Fudan University

Wei Lin received the Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in January, 2003, with specialization in dynamical systems, bifurcation and chaos theory, and systems control and synchronization.
In 2003, Dr. Lin joined the School of Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, China, where presently, he is a Full Professor in Applied Mathematics. From 2004 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Canada. Currently, he is serving as the Vice Dean of the Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-inspired Intelligence, as the Director of the Centre for Computational Systems Biology, as the Vice Director of the MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Fudan University, China. His current research interests include nonlinear dynamical systems and complex networks, bifurcation and chaos theory, hybrid and temporal (switching) structures, random dynamics, adaptive control and synchronization, time series and causality analytics, parameters/delays estimation, models/networks identification, data assimilation, artificial neural networks, and all their applications to computational systems biology and brain-inspired intelligence. His recent contributions have been published by top-tier journals including PNAS, PRL, and IEEE TAC.
Dr. Lin now is the Vice Chair of the Committee for Mathematical Life Science of CSIAM and the Vice Chair of the Shanghai Society for Nonlinear Sciences. He is the Senior Member of IEEE, the Associate Editor of International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, and the Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of CHAOS. He received the Second Prize of Fok-Ying-Tung Education Foundation Award for Young Scientists in Universities from the MOE of China in 2010, and he was selected as the Excellent Young Scholar and the Distinguished Young Scholar of NSFC in 2013 and 2019, respectively. He has been the Highly Cited Chinese Researcher in General Engineering according to Elsevier for the last five years.

Andrew Sheng

Distinguished Fellow
Asia Global Institute

Andrew Sheng is a former central banker and financial regulator in Asia and a commentator on global finance. He is Distinguished Fellow of Asia Global Institute, the University of Hong Kong and former Chairman of Khazanah Research Institute. Andrew is on the international advisory panels of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), China Investment Corporation (CIC), China Development Bank (CDB), and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), as well as one of the trustees of the Bank Indonesia Institute.
He formerly served as Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, and central banker with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank Negara Malaysia, including a stint at the World Bank. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing and Faculty of Economics, the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
A chartered accountant by training, he has a BSc in Economics and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Bristol and University of Malaya. In April 2013, Andrew was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Shang-Jin Wei

Visiting Professor
Fanhai International School of Finance
Fudan University

Education Background: Ph.D. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: Economic Development, International Finance and Macroeconomics, International Trade, and Asian Economies
Bio:
N.T. Wang Professor of Chinese Business and Economy, Professor of Finance and Economics (Business School), and Professor of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University
Director, Working Group on the Chinese Economy, and Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (United States).
Research Fellow, Center for Economic Policy Research (Europe).
Research Associate, Development Economics, International Finance and Macroeconomics, International Trade and Investment groups, National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
Research Fellow, International Growth Center
Member, Council on Foreign Relations
Advisor, Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research
Non-resident Fellow, Brookings Institution
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
Chief Economist and Director General of Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, Asian Development Bank, 2014-2016
Director, The Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business, Columbia Business School, 2010-2014
Assistant Director, Research Department, November 2005–August, 2007; Chief, Trade and Investment Division, May, 2005–August, 2007; Advisor, November 2001–April 2005,
International Monetary Fund.
Chief of Mission to Myanmar (Burma), International Monetary Fund, 2004.
Associate Professor of Public Policy, 1996-2000, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, 1992-96. Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
The New Century Chair in Trade and International Economics and Senior Fellow, 1999-2001, Brookings Institution.
Advisor, World Bank, 1999-2000.
Wei Shang-Jin professor’s academic papers were published in many top academic journals including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of International Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Development Economics, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of International Money and Finance, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity etc. From 2019 June,Wei professor’s article citation rate is 42456 at Google Scholar, from 2014it is 15885,40 articles’ citation rate exceed 400,9 one’s exceed 800, 4 one’s exceed 1500?Wei professor is the first Chinese economist who appeared in the list ranking economists globally at RePEc(Research Papers in Economics).
In addition, he works as co-editor or associate editor of academic journals like Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money and and advisor for The China Economic Review.

Yanni Li

General Manager
ICBC Austria Bank GmbH

Dr. Li Yanni graduated from Ren Min University of China. Since 1999, she has joined the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. She has worked in the International Business Department of the ICBC Head Office (Beijing), ICBC Asia (Hong Kong) and ICBC Standards (London). Dr Li focused on credit business, cross-border RMB business, and corporate investment banking business.
She has been awarded the CISI Investment Advise Diploma CF30 by the Securities and Investment Association of the United Kingdom (CISI). Through her 20 years of experience in international business, she has extensive banking expertise, investment experience and a broad international perspective.
Dr. Li Yanni was the head of ICBC Austria Preparatory Team since 2017 and is now the General Manager of ICBC Austria Bank GmbH which will act as the headquarter for CEE courntries and regions of ICBC.

Imre Boros

Director
International Investment Bank

Throughout his professional career, Dr. Imre Boros has gained experience in several domestic and international institutions among others as Head of Treasury of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary (1981-88), deputy CEO and head of international operations of Hungarian Credit Bank (1988-91), Chairman of Board of Interbanka Prague, and CEO of Banque Indosuez in Budapest (1991-98).
In 1998 Dr. Boros has become member of the Parliament (MP) and has served as a minister in charge for EU funds allocations (Phare, Ispa Sapard, 1998-2002), and has simultaneously managed the Ministry for Agriculture and Rular Development in 2001. In 2002, he became Head of Delegation of the Hungarian Republic to the Committee of the Regions in the European Union, and deputy chairman of the county council of Zala County. From 2006 up until 2010, he served as the member of the town-council of Zalalövő.
Dr. Imre Boros is an expert in economics and finance for new papers and TV companies. Author of several books in finances. He has graduated in finance from Budapest University for Economics (at present Corvinus University) in 1970.

Sopnendu Mohanty

Chief FinTech Officer
Monetary Authority of Singapore

Sopnendu Mohanty is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure and regulatory policies around technology innovation. Mohanty has spent over 20 years in various leadership roles globally in technology, finance and innovation. He has co-authored several patented works in area of retail distribution of the financial sector.
Mohanty extensively engages with ecosystems of various jurisdictions on innovation, policy making, and tech enabled financial services. He is on the Institutional Investor’s list of influential FinTech global dealmakers. Mohanty has been recognised internationally as a FinTech thought leader and he was recently named the Market Reformer of the Year by IFL, Euromoney.

Asslybek Davletov

Chief FinTech Officer 
Astana Financial Services Authority

Astana Financial Services Authority
Mr. Davletov as the Chief FinTech Officer is responsible for implementing and operating the AIFC Fintech Regulatory Sandbox and development of regulatory policies to facilitate the adoption of technological innovations in financial industry. He is overseeing the activities of two divisions: Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Division and Innovation Policy Division.
Prior to joining the Astana Financial Services Authority, Mr. Davletov served as:
·         Head of Regulation and Licensing Department at the Astana International Financial Center Authority;
·         Deputy Director of Methodology for Control and Supervision Department at the National Bank of Kazakhstan;
·         Legal adviser to the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Kazakhstan;
·         Chief Specialist at the Economic Court of Almaty city, Kazakhstan.
Mr. Davletov is a graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), Sloan Master Program, MS in Management. He also completed the Public Management and Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) and holds a bachelor’s degree in Law from the Kazakh University of the Humanities and Law.

Péter Csányi

Managing Director
OTP Bank Nyrt.

Managing Director, Digital Sales and Development Directorate & Tribe Lead, Omnichannel Tribe
From August 2016, he is leading the Digital Sales and Development Directorate at OTP Bank as Managing Director, and from January 2019, he is leading the Omnichannel Tribe at OTP Bank. In addition, he is a member of the Supervisory Board of OTP Mobile, and a member of the Supervisory Board of OTP Bank Russia, and president of the Supervisory Board of OTP Bank Croatia.
Péter came from the international consultancy, McKinsey& Company, where he worked on client engagements primarily in the banking sector in London, Budapest and Moscow.
He obtained his MBA at Kellog School of Management. Besides his consulting and banking background, Péter has great experience in project management that he gained at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. At Deutsche Bank he worked numerous live transactions (with Central and Eastern European clients) including M&A, equity and equity-linked product.

Alexander Morozov

Director
Research and Forecasting Department

In the early 1990s, Alexander defended his dissertation in economics at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and received a diploma from the London School of Economics. After that, he has been engaged in research work at the Russian Academy of Sciences for about 10 years.
In the period from 1994 to 2005, Alexander worked as a senior adviser on economics in the field of macroeconomics and budget policy at the World Bank, then transferred to the position of chief economist for Russia and the CIS countries at HSBC Holding.
Since September 2015, he has been Director of the Research and Forecasting Department at the Bank of Russia.
Alexander Morozov has numerous publications in Russian and international economic journals, a series of studies on macroeconomics and budget policy.

Markus Taube

Co-Director
Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr
University of Duisburg-Essen

holds the Chair for East Asian Economic Studies / China as a faculty member of the Mercator School of Management. He is the Director of the IN-EAST Institute of East Asian Studies and its School of Advanced Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen as well as a Co-Director of the Confucius Institute Metropolis Ruhr. Furthermore Markus Taube holds various advisory board positions and acts as President of the Euro-Asia Management Studies Association (EAMSA).
Markus Taube has been appointed to Visiting Professor positions at Nankai University, Tianjin, PR China, (2014-2017 “1000 Plan”, 2019-2022), Ca`Foscari University, Venice, Italy (2015-2016), Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, PR China (2017-2020), Jilin University, Changchun, PR China (2017-2022) as well as Wuhan University (2018-permanent).
Markus Taube started his academic career studying sinology and economics at the universities of Trier and Wuhan (PR China) and received his doctorate at the Ruhr University Bochum. With his dissertation he became the Walter-Eucken Prize laureate of 1998. Before joining the University of Duisburg-Essen he worked at the ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. He is a founding partner of THINK!DESK China Research & Consulting.
He has published extensively in the fields of industrial policy as well as institutional developments and transformation processes in China. He is especially interested in the formal as well as informal institutional foundations of cooperation and innovation in societies. In recent years the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative and its implications for global economic governance have become a major area of his research interests.

Zuokui Liu

Director
Department of Central and Eastern European Studies
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 

Institute of European Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Liu Zuokui, PhD in History (2005), the Senior Research Fellow of CASS and the Director of the Department of Central and Eastern European Studies, Institute of European Studies, CASS, and Secretary General of the China--CEEC Think Tanks Exchange and Cooperation Network (shorted as 17+1 Think Tanks Network).
Liu currently serves as the senior researcher of the Development Research Center of State Council of China, research fellow of China Foundation of International Affairs, research fellow of the Institute of Regional and Global Development Beijing Foreign Studies University and the senior researcher of Regional Security Center of CASS. He once was the visiting scholar of Mannheim University of Germany (2007), Aoyama Gakuin University of Japan (2009), Polish Institute of International Affairs (2015) and Latvian Institute of International Affairs (2016).
Liu’s major research interest included: Central and Eastern European Studies, Balkan Studies, European Union Integration Studies, China-EU Relations, Quantitative Research such as the Mutual Perception between China and EU and Central and Eastern European Countries, the Turkish Issues and China-Turkish Relations and etc.

Andrey Sushentsov

Director
Institute for International Studies
MGIMO University

Dr. Andrey Sushentsov leads the Institute of International Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He is a Program Director of the Valdai Discussion Club and is the president of the Eurasian Strategies MGIMO Consulting.
His research concentrates on American foreign policy in international conflicts in South Caucasus, Ukraine, and the Middle East. In his studies, he examines the spheres of conflicting interests of Russia and the United States in Europe, the Middle East and the post-Soviet space. His key publications include monographs "America's Small Wars", "Essays on US Policy in the Regional Conflicts of the 2000s", and the collective monograph "Russia and the World in 2020". He is also an editor of the annual forecast "International Threats".
He was a Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, Guido Carli Free University of International Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Harvard University and Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey. He is a member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and a member of the Working Group on the Future of Russian-American Relations.

Guanghua Wan

Director
Institute of World Economy
Fudan University

Dr. Guanghua Wan is Director, Institute of World Economy, Fudan University. Previously, he was Research Director and Head of Poverty/Inequality Group, Asian Development Bank. Prior to ADB, he was a senior economist in the United Nations and taught in a number of Universities in Australia and China.
Trained in development economics and econometrics, Dr. Wan is a multi-award-wining scholar on the Chinese economy and an expert on Asia, with an outstanding publication record of more than 100 professional articles and a dozen of books including two by Oxford University Press. An honorary professor of over ten top institutions in China, Dr. Wan is among the top 8% economists globally and top 4% in Asia according to the latest ranking of RePEc. Some of his publications can be downloaded here: http://ideas.repec.org/f/pwa395.html

Abishur Prakash

Geopolitical futurist
Center for Innovating the Future

Abishur Prakash is the world’s leading geopolitical futurist. He is a millennial focused on how new and emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, will transform geopolitics - and by extension, political systems, societies, economies, companies, cultures, business models and industries. Abishur works with multinationals, hyper growth startups, governments and institutions, helping them understand how the “geopolitics of technology” will impact them. He is the author of four books, including Go.AI (Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence) and Next Geopolitics: Volume One and Two. The Next Geopolitics series has been published in Hungarian by Pallas Athéné Könyvkiadó. Abishur's thoughts have been published in outlets like the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Scientific American, Newsweek and Axios. Abishur works at Center for Innovating the Future, a strategy innovation lab in Toronto, Canada, that specializes in setting vision and strategy, for companies and countries, to succeed in the New Algorithmic Age (also called the age of artificial intelligence).

David A. Jones

Professor
Institute of International Relations
University of of Warsaw

DAVID A. JONES is professor dr hab. of International Law, International Management, and International Relations at the University of Warsaw, Poland, where he offers core courses on United States foreign policy, international and comparative law, international management, international trade, as well as structure of the European Community. He received the Rector’s Award in 2018 from the University of Warsaw. Also, for over a decade, he has been a senior graduate lecturer at Norwich University, the Military Academy of the State of Vermont where since 2006 he has offered Graduate Diplomacy Program courses including Intercultural Management in the International System and Global Corporate Diplomacy. He received its Distinguished Faculty Award in 2018. In this century, Professor Jones has made 20 research visits to China including Xi’zang (Tibet), Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, elsewhere in Asia such as Japan, Turkey. He spent summer of 2019 conducting research coast to coast across United States. His most recent books are Asia in Europe (Kindle, 2018) plus Four Eagles and a Dragon: Successes and Failures of Quixotic Encirclement Strategies in Foreign Policy, An Analysis (Bloomsbury, Plc. 2015).

Kazbek Maigeldinov

Head of Center for Scientific Research and Analysis
Institute for Eurasian Integration

Maigeldinov Kazbek is Head of Center for Scientific Research and Analysis at the Institute for Eurasian Integration since July 2019. He was born on November 03, 1983, in the West Kazakhstan region. He graduated from the Faculty of History of O.A. Baikonurov Zhezkazgan University (2005); Master of History, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (2007); Law Department of the Karaganda Economic University (2018); Ph.D. doctoral student, Department of Journalism and Political Science, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. Between 2009 - 2012 he worked as leading researcher at the Research Center of the Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Between 2012 - 2014 Mr. Maigeldinov took the role as leading researcher at the Institute of Statehood, Security and Development at the Nazarbayev Center. Later, between 2014 – 2018 he took the position of Head of the Geopolitics and Regional Research Service of the Library of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is the author of more than 40 scientific publications. He specializes in regional security, integration processes and associations.

Irina Shubina

Head of Employer Brand Development
VKontakte

Irina Shubina is the Director of Brand Development at VK, the largest social network in Europe, which has a monthly audience of 97 million users. She has worked at VK for three years, and during her time at the company, has gone from being the Head of the Corporate Social Responsibility Department to her current position as Director. Before VK, Irina worked for several years in Germany and Great Britain researching nonprofit organizations and managed large governmental educational projects in various regions throughout Russia.

Tamás Baranyi

Head of Transatlantic Relations Department
Antall Jozsef Knowledge Centre

Tamás Baranyi received MA degree in History and American Studies from the ELTE University of Budapest. Since then, he has worked as historian in the House of Terror Museum in Budapest from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, he became Head of Research of the institution. In 2015, he joined the Antall József Knowledge Centre, a think tank and research institution also in the capacity to lead research in the field of history and international relations. He defended his thesis in 2018 with summa cum laude degree. The main field of his studies are the international history of the Cold War and strategic studies. From 2015 to 2018, he had taught at the Department of Contemporary History at Eötvös Loránd University. Since 2019, he is adjunct professor of International Relations at Pázmány Péter Catholic University.

Vladimir Petrovskiy

Chief Research Fellow
Center for Russian-Chinese Relations Studies and Forecasting
Russian Academy of Sciences 

Institute of Far Eastern Studies Russian Academy of Sciences
IIPC_consultation_oct2003_petrovskyVladimir Petvoskiy is the head researcher of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. He has a Ph.D. in political sciences and full member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences. His current professional affiliations: expert ’Valdai’ Discussion Club, expert at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), senior counselor at the Asian Economic Cooperation Foundation (AECF).
He has authored six books and more than 100 articles on theory of international regimes, multilateral security arrangements in Asia- Pacific and Euro-Atlantic-regions, civil military relations and security sector reform, international peacekeeping and conflict resolution, human security and human development, etc. The issues were published in Russian, English, Korean and German. Mr. Petrovskiy is a Member of Editorial Board for such periodicals as Diplomatic Service, International Journal of Asian Economics, International Journal of World Peace.
Some of his positions include ’Ria Novosti’ Deputy Chief Representative in China, Academic Secretary for Public and Media Relations, Institute of Far Eastern Studies (IFES), Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the Global peace Council, President of the Global Peace Council, Visiting Professor at the Sun Moon University, Republic of Korea etc.

Yuan Li

Professor 
Mercator School of Management and Institute of East Asian Studies
University of Duisburg-Essen

Yuan Li is a professor in Business and Economic Studies of East Asia at the Institute of East Asian Studies (IN-EAST) and Mercator School of Management, University of Duisburg-Essen. His main research focus are institutional economics, political economy, and Chinese Economy. He has served as the 28th President of the Chinese Economic Association (Europe/UK), and is an editorial board member of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies. He was the winner of the best dissertation award by the International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE). He has helped to set up the International Forum on the “New Silk Road” and Sino-European Cooperation in Duisburg. He has held various visiting positions at University of California, San Diego, University of Milan-Bicocca, Fudan University, and Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He got his PhD in Economics from DEFAP, Catholic University of Milan, was a Postdoctoral Fellow in University of Duisburg-Essen, and was Assistant Professor in Stockholm School of Economics.

Andrei Vernikov

Senior Research Fellow
Russian Adacemy of Sciences

Andrei Vernikov is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2006 to 2016 he taught as a Professor of Banking at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Prior to that, he held executive positions in banking and finance, including Vice President Finance at Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (Thessaloniki, Greece), Director at ABN AMRO Bank (Moscow), Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (Washington DC), and Deputy Managing Director at the Central Bank of Russia (Moscow). He also has served as a non-executive Director in 7 banks and companies.
Dr. Vernikov’s research interests include banking, corporate governance, institutional economics and development economics.
Andrei is a citizen of the Russian Federation, born in Sevastopol in 1960. He received his diploma in International Economics from the Moscow Institute of International Relations (now MGIMO-University) in 1981 and his doctoral degree from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2006. Andrei speaks Russian, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Czech.

Changhui Zhao

Chief Risk Analyst
China Export Import Bank

Zhao Changhui is veteran manager at The Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank for short), specializing in China’s national security policy, a time-honored multidimensional economist and strategic thinker.
He is a career banker and his rich expertise lies in geoeconomics of natural resources, energy geopolitics, international monetary regime, international security, global economy, world politics, environment and climate impact, sci-tech trends, all-region and country studies, and country risk assessment as a life-long profession.
Milestone achievements include but far from being limited to: Designer of China’s present-day strategy toward Africa; inventor of Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC); founder of country risk management in China; coiner of the permanent China International Rescue and, most recently, the conception of “community of shared future”.
His Ph.D. discipline in history of economics thought at Renmin University of China was completed in 2004. An M.A. candidate in economics of finance with Beijing Normal University in 2001, he received his B.A. in economics majoring in international finance from Tianjin University of Economics and Finance in 1984.
Prior to his long and distinguished service as an Eximbanker since May 1994, he was in charge of North American and Oceanian affairs with Bank of China during 1986–1994, starting at People’s Bank of China as a researcher in Shanghai and an interpreter and protocol officer at headquarters in Beijing respectively as of July 1984.
His expatriate experience embraced a three-year representative of China Eximbank’s Representative Office for Central and West Africa, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire from April 1996 to April 1999; a six-month visitation program with ANZ Group in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia between October 1988 and April 1989; and a three-month training course at Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, Canada, June-August 1993.

Mihály Patai

Deputy Governor
Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Dr. Mihály Patai has been Deputy Governor of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (The Central Bank of Hungary), and Member of the Monetary Council from 22 April 2019. Until April 2019 he was the President of the Hungarian Banking Association, and the Chairman&CEO of UniCredit Bank Hungary since 2006.
From 1996 to 2006, he was Chairman&CEO of Allianz Hungaria Insurance. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Executive Director of Kereskedelmi Bank, and from 1988 to 1993, he worked as assistant to the Executive Director of World Bank.
He graduated from the Budapest University of Economics. He studied under scholarships in London, Vienna and Moscow.
He is the Chairman of the Budapest Stock Exchange, and Vice President of the Hungarian Economic Association.

Khee Giap Tan

Associate Professor
Public Policy Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore

Tan Khee Giap is a Co-Director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He is also the Chairman of the Singapore National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation. Upon graduating with a PhD from University of East Anglia, England, in 1987 under the Overseas Research Scheme awarded by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom. He joined the banking sector as a treasury manager and served as secretary to the Assets and Liabilities Committee for three years, there after he taught at the Department of Economics and Statistics, National University of Singapore, 1990-1993. Dr Tan joined Nanyang Technological University in 1993 and was Associate Dean, Graduate Studies Office, 2007-2009. Dr Tan has consulted extensively with the various government ministries, statutory boards and government linked companies. He has also served as a consultant to international agencies such as the Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank Institute, United Nations Industrial Development Group, World Gold Council, ASEAN Secretariat, Central Policy Unit of Hong Kong, Kerzner International, Las Vegas Sands and Marina Bay Sands. Dr Tan is the lead author for more than 20 books, serving as journal editors and published widely in international refereed journals. He is the associate editor of the journal Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (US) and is on the editorial advisory board of the journal Competitiveness Review (UK). His current research interests include econometric forecasting, Cost of Living Index, Global Liveable Cities Index and competitiveness analysis on 31 provinces in China, 35 states in India, 33 provinces in Indonesia and ASEAN-10 economies. Dr Tan was Deputy President of the Singapore Economic Society, 2004. He served in the 2002 Economic Review Committee (ERC), and was Chairman of the Task Force on Portable Medical Benefits (PMB) and Deputy Chairman of the IPS Forum for Economic Restructuring (IFER) in 2003. He is a member of the Resource Panel of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Transport, GPC for Finance and Trade & Industry and GPC for Defense and Foreign Affairs since 2007. Dr Tan has extensively advised and guided multinational corporations leading to public listings especially those companies from Mainland China and Taiwan. He is also currently an Independent Director of the publicly listed BreadTalk Group, Boustead Singapore, TEE Land and Chengdu Rural Commercial Bank, and Senior Business Advisor to United Overseas Bank Limited, Singapore.

Dániel Palotai

Executive Director and Chief Economist
Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Dániel Palotai is an economist. He earned his Master’s degree in 2004 at the Faculty of Economics, Finance Major, Actuary Minor, of the Corvinus University of Budapest. He began his professional career at Magyar Nemzeti Bank, the central bank of Hungary, working as an analyst at the Monetary Strategy Division of the Bank’s Economics Department between 2004 and 2007. Being one of the developers of the MNB pension model, he is a recognised expert on pension systems. From 2007, he went on to work at the European Central Bank, where as an economist responsible for selected non-euro area EU Members States he gained insight into financial crisis management. From November 2010, he was Head of the Macroeconomic Policy Department of the Ministry for National Economy and was actively involved in the development of Hungary’s Structural Reform Program. He contributed to the economic and financial stabilisation of Hungary as a member of the Economic Policy Committee (EPC) of the European Union.
In March 2013 Dániel Palotai re-joined the Magyar Nemzeti Bank to become Executive Director and the Bank’s Chief Economist. In 2015, he received the Popovics Sándor award, which is a prestigious recognition awarded to young economists under the age of 45.
Since 2016 he is the Chairman of the Competitiveness Section of Hungarian Economic Association (HEA), since 2017 he is also the Vice President of HEA. He is an Honorary Associate Professor of the MNB Department of Corvinus University of Budapest. Since 2016 he is also the Chairman of the scientific journal Financial and Economic Review’s (FER) Editorial Board. He has authored numerous articles and studies devoted to central banking, economic policy and competitiveness as well as the co-editor of the book entitled ‘Competitiveness and Growth’ (2016). He is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the European Central Bank and a member of the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) of the European Union.

Barnabás Virág

Executive Director
Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Barnabás Virág is the Executive Director for Monetary Policy and Economic Analysis of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank since 2015. He started his career at the Ministry of Finance. He joined the Bank as an analyst in 2003, leading the Bank’s economic forecast work as of 2009 before directing the Directorate Economic Forecast and Analysis. He is a member of the Financial Stability Council of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank and of the Monetary Policy Committee operating within the framework of the European System of Central Banks. His articles are regularly published in the Hungarian trade press; his main research areas are economic growth, inflation, monetary policy and competitiveness. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Financial and Economic Review. He received the Popovics Prize in 2017.

Norbert Csizmadia

President of the Board of Trustees
Pallas Athéné Innovation and Geopolitical Foundation

Norbert Csizmadia is the President of the Board of Trustees at the Pallas Athéné Innovation and Geopolitical Foundation (PAIGEO). He is a geographer and expert in economic strategy, regional and urban development and geopolitics. He is the author of the book, Geofusion- Mapping of the 21st Century and Editor-in Chief of the HUG (Hungarian Geopolitics magazine). The book launch of Geofusion was in November 2017 organised by the Fudan Development Institute in Shanghai. He was the executive director of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary) in charge of economic strategy and planning from 2013 to 2016. From 2012 Norbert Csizmadia was State Secretary for planning coordination in the Ministry for National Economy. From 2010 he was the head of the Strategic Think Tank and later the Deputy State Secretary for economic planning.
He was Secretary of the Economic Consultation from the autumn of 2005. He was co-author and coordinator of the discussion paper “Vision Hungary 2025” and Chief coordinator of the development of the New Széchenyi Plan. From 2004 he was a member of the Team Europe expert committee established by the European Commission in the topic of regional policy. From 2000, he was the head of the Deputy State Secretariat for Regional Economic Development in the Ministry for National Economy.

Levente Horváth

Chief Advisor to Governor
Magyar Nemzeti Bank

Levente Horváth is a Chinese expert, he has lived for twelve years in China. Currently Levente Horváth is working as the Chief Advisor to Governor at the Central Bank of Hungary. Previously he was the Head of Educational Department in the Central Bank. Before starting his career in the Central Bank of Hungary, worked as the Consul General of Hungary in Shanghai, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Also, he is the Vice-President of Fudan University Alumni. He was taking both BSc and MSc studies at the Fudan University in Shanghai where he also graduated successfully. Currently, he is doing his PhD studies at the University of Pécs.