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Laura Alonso has an extensive and unique cross-sector career promoting democracy, transparency, and citizen participation. She has previously held positions as Head of the Anti-corruption Office in Argentina, twice elected member of the National Congress, and CEO of the domestic chapter of Transparency International. Because of her leadership in integrity and anti-corruption policies, Argentina reached its highest score in the Index of Transparency International in 2020.

Laura co-chaired the G20 Anti-corruption Working Group, and she was chief of the official delegation to the OECD Anti-Bribery Working Group. She has been a British Chevening Scholar, an Eisenhower Fellow, a Draper Hills Fellow at Stanford University, and most recently a Regan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. She became a WEF Young Global Leader in 2012, and she received a global award from Vital Voices in 2008. In 2020, she was portrayed in the book “Vital Voices: 100 Women Using their Power to Empower.” In 2015, she published a book called “Circo Kirchner” and since October 2020 has been writing a weekly newsletter called “Mi Lado B” and a book manuscript about her crossover experience from civil society into electoral politics and policymaking. With hundreds of thousands of Twitter and Facebook followers, she continues to influence the political landscape.

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Muthanna Khriesat is Chief Operating Officer of Questscope, an international non-governmental organization committed to social development through youth empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa region. Muthanna oversees institutional partnerships locally in Jordan, regionally in MENA, and internationally. In Jordan he guides collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Social Development and the Department of Public Security. He is responsible for strategic planning and development of technological and financial infrastructure, with special emphasis on cooperation with UN, EU, and US agencies for initiatives with Syrian refugees and vulnerable Jordan youth.

Muthanna holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Amman, Jordan.

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Elinda Labropoulou is an award-winning multi-platform storyteller. She is an internationally published writer, senior broadcaster, and presenter with extensive reporting from global hotspots for leading media including CNN, The Washington Post, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Deutsche Welle. Working for CNN out of Greece, she has produced, directed, and presented news and analysis on the country’s financial crisis, the rise of political extremism, and the ongoing global refugee crisis.
Her extensive research and multifaceted storytelling are visible in diverse projects including the Washington Post’s A New Age of Walls, which won the US National Press Foundation’s 2017 Innovation Award. In 2020 she produced Life in a Camp, a pioneering CNN-Imperial War Museum immersive experience on display at the London museum. A multilingual commentator, she has given numerous lectures on the role of international media in crisis coverage.

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Udo Jude Ilo works to expand the space for social innovation and champions the use of entertainment as a tool for shaping narratives, supporting new voices, and engaging with the youth population in Africa. As the Nigerian representative of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, his focus has been about creativity and finding new tools for democracy promotion. Udo supports civic mobilization and media campaigns on political participation, natural resources management, and rule of law. By building partnerships with local and regional groups that promote inclusive democratic governance, Udo helps advocate for an empowered citizenry that holds political institutions accountable.

For nearly two decades Udo has worked to support a framework of democratic accountability that allows for the primacy of citizens voices through his professional roles and writings as a social commentator. He has published several articles and op-eds that span critical issues of governance affecting Africa.

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Korto Reeves is currently the global Head of Women’s Rights in ActionAid International, a social justice federation in 43 countries. Over the last 13 years, she has worked with the organization in several positions, including Country Director in Liberia from 2010 to 2016. She has 20 years of professional experience working across Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and with USAID and UNDP.

She is an African feminist and strategic civil society leader in Liberia and on the continent. A significant contributor to shaping feminist discourse on multiple and intersecting issues in the region, she is a member of the Urgent Action Fund-Africa and Sustainable Development Institute boards. As a survivor of the Liberian 14-year civil war, she uses her creative writing and storytelling experience to call for visibility on social justice issues and promote healing. She recently published a book of poetry titled Inappropriate Medley: Stories of the Patriarchy, Pleasure, and Redemption. Her academic research on social change in Liberia influences movement-building within women’s rights and other movements. She is a Co-Founder of the Liberia Feminist Forum.

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Ömür Kula Çapan is a well-known creative strategist and experience designer in Turkey who successfully managed pioneering companies like Tribal WW and R/GA Istanbul, leading the digital transformation of Turkey’s biggest brands and companies, and helped build Turkey’s first and most successful digital-only bank, Enpara. She is also a sought-after keynote speaker, columnist, and a guest lecturer for many universities.

Alongside her successful career in the business world, her true passion lies in channeling this creativity for the transformation of societies for a better world. She has participated in the foundation of the Civic Involvement Projects of Sabancı University, and helped to take the model nation-wide with the Open Institute’s funding to other universities. She designed award-winning alternative curriculums for refugee, Kurdish, and at-risk children. Her belief and strong drive for educational reform and change that is based on grass-roots activation has given her a seat at the most prestigious board of the Educational Reform Initiative. Her idealistic views and hard work have also won her the chair for being the youngest president of the Advertising Foundation, whose focus is to nurture talent for the industry.

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Rayhan Asat is an Uyghur human rights attorney. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former anti-corruption attorney at a major U.S. law firm, Rayhan specializes in international human rights law and compliance with best business practices. Her legal and policy work centers around enforcing international human rights norms, civil liberties, curtailing forced labor, and promoting corporate accountability. She advised the World Bank and OECD to design Human-Centered Business Integrity Principles. She works with civil society, diplomats, lawmakers, and businesses to address human rights concerns, especially the atrocities in Xinjiang including her own brother Ekpar Asat’s enforced disappearance.

She has been featured in various media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, Foreign Policy, CNN, Deutsche Welle and Al-Jazeera among others. She is a sought-after speaker and has testified before the Canadian Parliament and will present at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in June 2021. Rayhan’s writing has also been published in many legal journals, and her opinions have appeared in Foreign Policy, NBC News, The Hill Magazine, and other prominent publications. She is a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights and is also the founder and president of the American Turkic International Lawyers Association.