Bio

At Times Higher Education, the data, insights and events partner to universities and governments worldwide, Phil leads on government partnerships, external engagement, product development and commercial strategy. He is also Director General of the Education World Forum, the largest gathering of education and skills ministers in the world.

Bio

The Honourable Bill Blair is a distinguished public servant whose career spans more than four decades in policing, federal public office, and diplomacy. In 2026, he was appointed High Commissioner for Canada in the United Kingdom, after stepping down as a long-serving Member of Parliament. Before that, he served as Chief of the Toronto Police Service.

Mr. Blair was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Scarborough Southwest in 2015, and re-elected three times. During his time on the Hill, he has held a number of senior Cabinet positions, including Minister of National Defence, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction. He was also previously Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and to the Minister of Health.

Bio

Catherine Draper is based in Cape Town, South Africa. Prior to starting as the Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Regional Health – Africa in September 2025, she held an Associate Professor position at the University of the Witwatersrand (2020-2025, previously Senior Researcher). Catherine has a MA in Research Psychology and PhD in Public Health, both from the University of Cape Town, where she also completed my postdoctoral research fellowship and worked as a senior researcher until 2017. She has published more than 170 peer-reviewed articles and led the Series on ‘Early childhood development and the next 1000 days’, published in The Lancet in 2024. Her research interests include implementation science, qualitative research methods, and early childhood development. She has been involved in research studies on child development, and maternal and child health in South Africa.

Bio

Mr. Francis Kabera Gatare is the President of the African School of Governance. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), where he spearheaded Rwanda’s investment promotion, export development, and private sector growth agenda. He brings deep expertise in governance, economic policy, and institutional leadership to ASG.

Bio

Marin is a global programs executive who has built relationships across government, foundations, the private sector, and community-based organizations around the world. As the Founding Executive Director, Marin leads strategic growth and scale up of the Reach Alliance, a global consortium of cross-sector partners developing leaders to co-create climate, public health, and economic solutions with hard-to-reach communities. Prior to joining the Reach Alliance, Marin led Grand Challenges Canada’s approach to impact measurement across their maternal, newborn and child health innovation portfolio. Her focus was on the systems and processes used to capture results, and to share knowledge generated by grantees through the organization’s unique innovation platform. Marin holds a Master in Public Health degree from the University of Toronto, and a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University as a Loran Scholar.

Bio

Gustavo Merino is the Director of Social Polices and Inclusion at UNESCO since 2024. He has held senior positions in the Government of Mexico including Vice-Minister of Social and Human Development and Vice-Minister for Prospective, Planning and Evaluation at the Ministry of Social Development. He was also General Director of Mexico’s development bank for agriculture and rural areas. At the FAO, he was Director of the Investment Centre. He has also been Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Government for Mexico City Region of Tecnológico de Monterrey where he also led the Research Centre on Public Policy and Health at the School of Government and the Public Policy Unit of the Institute for Obesity Research. He was also Professor of Economics and Director, Centre for Public Policy Research at ITAM in Mexico City. He has an MPP and PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University and a BA in Economics from ITAM.

Bio

Geoff Mulgan is Professor at University College London (UCL), working in Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy. He was Chief Executive of Nesta from 2011–2019 and previously held senior roles in the UK government, including Director of the Government Strategy Unit, Director of the Performance and Innovation Unit, and Head of Policy in the Prime Minister’s Office. He was the first CEO of the Young Foundation and co-founded organisations including Demos, Action for Happiness and the Social Innovation Exchange. Geoff has advised governments, foundations and organisations worldwide. He is a visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and the author of numerous books on public strategy, social innovation, collective intelligence and science, including Advanced Guide to Public Sector Innovation (Edward Elgar, 2026) and Exploratory Social Science (OUP, 2026). He holds a CBE and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2020.

Bio

John Pfumojena is a Zimbabwean composer, theatre director, performer, and practitioner-scholar. He is Founder and Artistic Director of Meet My Ancestors and Co-Artistic Director of Vestland Danseteater. His practice centres mbira, Shona storytelling and musical knowledge, embodied transmission, and intercultural collaboration in performance. His work spans the National Theatre, Young Vic, Shakespeare’s Globe, Royal Court, and National Theatre of Scotland, with credits including ‘The Jungle’, ‘Enough of Him’, ‘For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy’, and Chadwick Boseman’s ‘Deep Azure’. His music is published by Warner Chappell Music; his work on The Jungle received an OBIE Special Citation award. He is a former Visiting Fellow at TORCH – The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities and Exeter College, University of Oxford.

Bio

Wales is the only country in the world with a Well-being of Future Generations Act. The Future Generations Commissioner advises government and public bodies to take a long-term approach to decision-making and champions the interests of future generations.
Derek Walker became the second Future Generations Commissioner for Wales on 1 March 2023, calling for urgent and transformational change. Before taking up the role, he spent 12 years as CEO of Cwmpas, supporting people and communities to create jobs and strengthen local economies through sustainable development.
His career has included roles with London Councils, the Big Lottery Fund (Wales), the Wales TUC, and Stonewall Cymru, where he was the organisation’s first employee in Wales.
Raised on a farm near Cwmbran, Derek holds a Master’s degree in International Journalism from Cardiff University. A keen runner, tennis player, reader and Welsh learner, he lives in Cardiff with his partner Mike. He describes being a guardian of future generations’ interests as the greatest privilege of his career.