Annette Gerlach is a German TV host and journalist of the Franco-German television channel Arte. She presents the programs in German as well as in French.

Alex Taylor is a European journalist. He has produced and presented TV and radio programmes for 30 years, mainly on French TV and radio (France Télévisions, France Inter), but also for international broadcasters (Euronews, TV5 Monde, ARTE, BBC). He was Programme Director for Radio France Internationale in charge of implementing the current 24 hours news format. Parallel to journalism, he has hosted some 1 500 international conferences on a wide variety of topics, especially environmental issues. He has also written a best seller on his passion, languages, of which he speaks (more or less) 7. He also once worked as a camel trainer in a circus.

Tomáš Boček was appointed CEB Vice-Governor for Target Group Countries in March 2019 and was re-appointed in April 2021. Before arriving at the CEB, he was Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on Migration and Refugees. He has previously served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe, in which capacity he also represented the Czech Republic to the CEB Governing Board. He was Vice-Chairperson of the CEB Governing Board between 2013 and 2015. Mr Boček holds a Law degree from the West Bohemian University in Pilsen and a postgraduate diploma (DEA) in International Public Law from the Faculty of Law of Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne.

Previously, he was Costa Rica’s Second Vice President and Minister of National Planning; Secretary for Political Affairs at the Organization of American States; Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; and National Coordinator of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report. He holds a Law degree from the University of Costa Rica, a Masters in Government from the University of Essex, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Oxford. He has authored several studies on campaign finance, elections, democratization, citizen security and civil-military relations in Latin America.

Based in Brussels, Andrea Liverani covers strategic alignment and quality of WB operations in areas including environment and climate, agriculture, urban development and social inclusion, as well as key infrastructure sectors such as water, energy, transport and ICT. Andrea has over 20 years’ experience spanning research, policy as well as financial and advisory support to governments. Between 2002 and 2005 he was with the OECD Development Assistance Committee Secretariat working on results-based financing and aid effectiveness, and previously held positions in government, academia and private consulting. Mr. Liverani holds a Ph. D. and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

Ms Pilichowski has over 20 years’ experience dedicated to public governance in OECD and Partner countries. She started in the Public Governance Directorate leading projects and teams on Agencies, Public Employment and various governance and indicator issues, before becoming deputy head of unit for the Eurasia region in the OECD Global Relations Secretariat. In 2014 she was appointed Advisor and then Counsellor to the OECD Secretary-General, before taking up her current position in 2020. Prior to joining the OECD, Ms Pilichowski held research positions at the World Bank.

Alexandre Stutzmann is the Special Adviser to the President of the General Assembly, in charge of the strategy and implementation of UN75/ Our Common Agenda, Outreach and Partnerships, and the President’s Youth Fellowship Programme. Alexandre joined the Office of the President of the General Assembly for the 73rd session, where he was team leader for social, humanitarian and cultural issues as well as human rights. He also coordinated the task force for the commemorations of the 75th UN anniversary. He then was a Special Adviser to the PGA during the 75th session, in charge if UN75 strategy and implementation. Prior to his UN appointments, Alexandre was the Director for parliamentary committees in the field of External Policies (foreign affairs, development, international trade, human rights, security and defense) in the European Parliament. His role was to coordinate the political and administrative support given to the work of several political bodies and develop synergies between external and domestic EU policy areas, while ensuring consistency with the work and action of other EU institutions or with third country counterparts. A European Union official since 2001, he previously headed the Secretariat of the Foreign Affairs Committee (2014-2015) and served as the Diplomatic Adviser to three Presidents of the European Parliament (2007-2014). Alexandre is a graduate in humanities, political science and law from the Ecole Normale Supérieure as well as the Sorbonne University in Paris. He was also a postgraduate scholar at the European University Institute in Florence, where he focused on international relations, while teaching political science at New York University. Alexandre taught regularly since then in various European and American universities. A French native, his languages include English, German, Italian and Spanish, while he has not given up on improving his Russian and Arabic in the future.