In order of participation
Moza Al-Hajri
Student Conference Moderator
Moza is an Ambassador of QatarDebate Center, where she promotes the culture of dialogue and intellectual discourse through international projects. Moza is a former member of the Qatar National Debate team, where she was ranked World Champion in Arabic debating and Top 10 in world English debating. She now delivers training for new generations of the national debate team while continuing to score medals in her university debating career. Moza is pursuing a degree in Foreign Service at Georgetown University, majoring in International Economics and minoring in Arabic. She is also active in community outreach, youth empowerment, sustainable development, and promoting multiculturalism. She has advocated for the right to education and climate change worldwide and moderated high-level panels concerned with culture, sustainability, and dialogue. Moza was honored with the Education Excellence Award from His Highness the Amir of Qatar in 2016, 2019, and 2023.
Androulla Kaminara
Former EU Ambassador to Pakistan
Ambassador Androulla Kaminara is the inaugural Distinguished-Diplomat-in-Residence at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Qatar). With 40 years of outstanding public service, management, and diplomacy, her many roles have included serving as the first female European Union (EU) Ambassador to Pakistan; Director of Humanitarian Aid Operations for Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific; and Director for the Quality of Programs and Projects for the EU International Cooperation and Development. She has also served as the EU Fellow to St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, and a research associate at King’s College, London. Recipient of the Global Ambassador Award in 2021 and the International Peace Award, Ambassador Kaminara holds a B.Sc (Hons.) in Geology and Physics (King’s College London), an MSc in Management Science (Imperial College), and a Maîtrise in International Politics (ULB, Brussels).
Safwan Masri
Dean, Georgetown University in Qatar
Safwan M. Masri is Dean of Georgetown University in Qatar and Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining Georgetown in October 2022, Professor Masri was Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University, and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Prior to that, Dean Masri was a professor at Columbia Business School, where he also served as Vice Dean. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires) in France. Dean Masri is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (2017). He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association. Dean Masri led the establishment of King’s Academy and Queen Rania Teacher Academy in Jordan. He is a trustee of International College in Beirut, and serves as a director of AMIDEAST and of Endeavor Jordan. Dean Masri received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University.
H.E. Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani
Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations in New York
Her Excellency Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani has been the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations since 2013, the first Qatari woman to serve in this capacity. She is an internationally recognized advocate for human rights and international law, climate action and sustainable development, mediation and conflict prevention, gender equality, and humanitarian action. She remains at the forefront of efforts to advance international cooperation and protect the multilateral system. Ambassador Al-Thani’s initiatives include establishing United Nations Groups of Friends and co-chairing the Group of Friends for Gender Parity and several others. In her previous roles, she served as Qatar’s first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and General Consul to the Swiss Federation. She has also held the post of Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council. Ambassador Al-Thani has won many awards, including a nomination as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2013.
Dalia Grybauskaitė
former President of Lithuania
Dalia Grybauskaitė served as Lithuanian President from 2009 to 2019, focusing on improving the country’s economy and addressing security issues through an enhanced presence of a NATO battle group. She has also served as Finance Minister for Lithuania and the European Union Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budgets. Dalia Grybauskaitė continues to serve on a number of advisory boards and commissions. She also remains widely popular in Lithuania and speaks publicly on current issues, including energy security, transatlantic relations, geopolitical security, women’s leadership, gender equality, sustainable development, economic transparency and accountability.
Ghulam Hoosein Asmal
Ambassador of South Africa to Qatar
Ambassador Ghulam Hoosein Asmal joined the South African diplomatic corps following South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994. Prior to becoming a diplomat, he was actively involved in defending human rights and providing legal assistance to individuals opposed to the apartheid regime in SA. He has also led the African Union, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and International Partnerships Desks at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) in South Africa. His diplomatic postings include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, and the Comoros Islands. Throughout his career as a diplomat, he has been a proponent of stronger relationships and collaboration between countries within a multilateral global order He strongly believes in pan-Africanism and champions the agenda of the global South.
Mehran Kamrava
Professor of Government, Georgetown University in Qatar
Professor Kamrava is the author of several books, including, most recently, A Dynastic History of Iran: From the Qajars to the Pahlavis (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Triumph and Despair: In Search of Iran’s Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press, 2022), A Concise History of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (Cornell University Press, 2018), Inside the Arab State (Oxford University Press, 2018), The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (Yale University Press, 2016), Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Cornell University Press, 2015), The Modern Middle East: A Political History Since the First World War (University of California Press, 2013), and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Recently, he has contributed several articles to notable peer-reviewed journals, including the Muslim World, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, International Studies, Middle East Policy, Sociology of Islam, and the Middle East Journal. He is also series editor for Contemporary Issues in the Middle East and Iran from the Pahlavis to the Present. Professor Kamrava received his Ph.D. in government from the University of Cambridge.
Wendy Gilmour
Assistant Secretary General NATO, former High Commissioner to Pakistan
Wendy Gilmour has worked for over 30 years in Canada’s foreign service, holding positions responsible for political-military affairs, post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction, international trade policy, and international defense materiel cooperation. She served as Canada’s High Commissioner to Pakistan (2018-2022), subsequently moving to NATO to become Assistant Secretary General (Defence Investment). She has also served as Canada’s Director General Trade and Export Controls, Director General International and Industry Programs (Department of National Defence) and Director Peace Operations, supporting Canada’s deployment to ISAF, with responsibility for the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Furthermore, she was deployed as a policy advisor to the Commander North American Aerospace Defence Command in Colorado Springs, USA. Her diplomatic postings include Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria. She has also been involved in the operations of various international organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
Cynthia Schneider
Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University, former Ambassador of the U.S. to the Netherlands
Ambassador Cynthia P. Schneider, PhD, teaches courses in Diplomacy and Culture and co-directs the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. She served as the US Ambassador to the Netherlands from 1998 to 2001. During her tenure there, she led initiatives in cultural diplomacy, biotechnology, cyber security, environment, and education. Dr. Schneider engages with topics related to arts, culture, and media and international affairs and has published articles in the Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, TIME, and Foreign Policy as well as policy papers for the Brookings Institution, actively promoting the idea of the importance of culture in diplomacy and international affairs.
Cristian Tudor
EU resident Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to the State of Qatar
Ambassador Cristian Tudor, Ph.D. assumed duty as the first EU resident Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to the State of Qatar on September 1, 2022, and presented his credentials to the Emir of Qatar on September 13. Cristian Tudor began his diplomatic career in 2003 and gained experience working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, EU Delegations, and NATO Training Missions. The President of Romania awarded him the rank of Ambassador in 2019. His former positions include EU Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Kuwait, Ambassador of Romania to Qatar, Deputy Ambassador of Romania to Syria and Director for the Middle East and Africa in the MFA of Romania. Cristian Tudor also served in the Embassy of Romania to Libya, the EU Delegation to Iraq, and the NATO Training Mission in Iraq – for which he was awarded the NATO Non-Article 5 Medal, becoming the first Romanian non-military personnel who was granted such a decoration. Ambassador Tudor has an academic background in Arabic studies, law, and international relations and security, with a focus on the Middle East and the Gulf. He earned his Ph.D. in Military Science in 2007 from the National Defence University of Romania. Ambassador Tudor speaks Romanian, Arabic, English and French.
Dr. Michail Bletsas
Director of Computing, Massachussets Institute of Technology Media Lab
Dr. Michail Bletsas is a Research Scientist and Director of Computing at MIT’s Media Lab where he has been working since 1996. He was a member of the core technical and design team for the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative which created OLPC’s pioneering, award-winning “XO” laptop. His current research interests include network security, disinformation operations, wireless networks and building efficient high performance machine learning computing infrastructures. He has advised governments on technology policy issues and provided expert opinion on technical matters to top-level officials. Mr. Bletsas has frequently served as a keynote speaker at international conferences and has been involved in various civic activities. He holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MSc degree in Computer Engineering from Boston University.
Dr. Jamie Olsen
Manager of Instructional Design and Educational Continuity, Georgetown University in Qatar
Dr. Olsen holds an MA in International Affairs from George Washington University and a PhD in Philosophy from Georgetown University. He has taught both philosophy and environmental studies at Georgetown’s home campus in Washington, DC. A founding faculty member of Georgetown’s Core Pathways Curriculum on Climate Change, he spent nearly a decade working as the Assistant Director for Programs for Faculty and Graduate Students at Georgetown’s Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship. He specializes in course and instructional design, inclusive pedagogy, pedagogical development, and issues in sustainability. His current research interests are focused on environmental philosophy. After fifteen years on the main campus, he has recently rejoined GU-Q, where he earlier served as a Research Fellow. In addition to teaching philosophy, his duties include a variety of functions related to faculty development, instructional design, and educational technology.
Dr. Nathaniel Raymond
Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH)
Dr. Nathaniel A. Raymond is Executive Director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) and a lecturer in the Department of the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases (EMD) at YSPH. From 2018 to 2022, he was a lecturer of Global Affairs at the Jackson School for Global Affairs. Previously, he worked as the founding Director of the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2012 – 2018). Dr. Raymond has also served as a humanitarian aid worker with Oxfam America and was deployed to Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and the US Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He has formally advised multiple UN, governmental, and non-governmental agencies. His work has appeared in Nature, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Annals of General Psychiatry, Disasters, and other peer-reviewed publications.
Colonel Simon K. Maina
Director of Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Technologies at the National Security Advisors Office in Kenya
Commissioned as an Air Force Officer in 2007, after studying computer science, Col Simon has since been at the forefront of integrating cutting- edge technological solutions within Kenya’s operations. His drive to cultivate homegrown tech led to the inception of the National Cybersecurity Center and spearheading pivotal national cybersecurity and defense industrialization projects. Notably, Simon’s academic prowess saw him become the first African to grace the College of Information and Cyberspace at the National Defense University in Washington DC, further solidifying his expertise with multiple master’s degrees in critical tech domains. Currently, as the Director of Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and Emerging Technologies at the National Security Advisors office, Simon shapes the policies that guide Kenya through the digital age. His role is crucial in harmonizing national strategies towards leveraging technology for national security and development. Beyond his technical acumen, Simon champions the cause for equality, with a keen focus on bridging the digital gender divide, underpinning his belief in technology as a catalyst for enhancing citizen well-being and human development. His current passion lies in bridging the gap between technology and diplomacy, to ensure that every advancement contributes to a safer digital space for nations and their citizens.
Natalie A. Baker
Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Qatar
Natalie A. Baker arrived at Embassy Doha as Deputy Chief of Mission in August 2021. Prior to this, she served as Director of the Office of North African Affairs in the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. Natalie has previously served as Deputy Chief and Charge d’Affaires, a.i. of the U.S. Mission to Libya, Deputy Director of the Iran Regional Presence Office at the U.S. Consulate in Dubai, and Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. In Kuwait, Natalie worked with the Department of Defense to support the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. From 2009-2011, Natalie served as Political and Economic Counselor in Libya, as the bilateral relationship was normalizing after a nearly 30-year pause. She remained in Libya until the Libyan Revolution forced the U.S. Embassy to evacuate in February 2011. Natalie’s previous assignments included Special Assistant in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Consular Officer in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Cultural Officer in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Natalie holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Princeton University and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University. She is a 2017 Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, National Defense University of the United States of America.
Sultan Barakat
Professor of Public Policy, HBKU
Sultan Barakat is a Professor in Public Policy at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University and an Honorary Professor at the University of York. A Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), he has founded the Global Institute for Strategic Research and the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He has also served as the Director of Research at the Brookings Institutions Doha Center. He has been widely published and his most recent books include Understanding Influence: The Use of State building Research in British Policy ( 2014) and Russia’s Approach to Post-Conflict Reconstruction (2023). With over 30 years of professional experience working on conflict resolution, humanitarian response, state building and post-conflict recovery and transition, he regularly provides guidance to the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union, the Red Cross, and governments in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Nepal, Palestine, Philippines (Mindanao), Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan (Darfur), Syria, Uganda (Moyo and Adjumani) and Yemen.
Kuzmenko Andrii
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from Ukraine to Qatar
With a robust military and diplomatic background, Kuzmenko Andrii is a distinguished figure in Ukrainian foreign service. Graduating from Riga Higher Military School in 1982 with a high military-political education, he later earned a Law Specialist degree from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2001. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Kuzmenko served in various capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, specializing in arms control and disarmament. His expertise led him to significant roles, including Inspector of the UNMOVIC mission in Iraq in 2002. Subsequently, he held key positions related to European integration, culminating in his tenure as Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe (2004-2008). As an experienced diplomat, he furthered Ukraine’s interests in the United Kingdom as Minister-Counsellor from 2010 to 2015. Subsequently, he served as Ambassador-at-Large until December 2019 in the framework of the trilateral contact group in Minsk. In December 2019 he assumed the role of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the State of Qatar.
Raffaella Iodice
EU Chargée d’Affaires a.i., European Union Delegation to Afghanistan
Raffaella Iodice is currently a Chargée d’Affaires at the EU Delegation in Afghanistan. Until August 2022, she served as Head of Unit for Asia, Latin America, Caribbean and the Pacific and Deputy Director at the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), after working as Head of the Middle East/Gulf, South Asia and Central Asia at the European Commission, which she joined in 1991. Over the years, Ms Iodice has gained international recognition as a specialist of development, particularly in war-torn countries and the Middle East. She has held posts in Palestine during the second Intifada (2002-2007), where she was in charge of development cooperation activities and relations with the Palestinian Authority, and in Egypt (2007-2011), managing political and development relationships with the government there. Since the 2011 Arab Spring, she has been actively involved in EU activities in the Middle East. She has also served as Head of Unit for the Southern Partnership countries, such as Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine.
Nada Tarbush
Permanent Palestinian Mission to the UN in Geneva
Nada Tarbush is Counselor at the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. During her work in multilateral diplomacy in Geneva and New York, she has been involved in a range of matters, including disarmament, human rights, UN administrative and budgetary matters, and intellectual property. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, Master’s degrees in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and Columbia University, and an Executive Master in International Law and Armed Conflict from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.