President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking

Rob Johnson serves as President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking and a Senior Fellow and Director of the Global Finance Project for the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in New York.
Johnson is an international investor and consultant to investment funds on issues of portfolio strategy. He recently served on the United Nations Commission of Experts on International Monetary Reform under the Chairmanship of Joseph Stiglitz.
Previously, Johnson was a Managing Director at Soros Fund Management where he managed a global currency, bond and equity portfolio specializing in emerging markets. Prior to working at Soros Fund Management, he was a Managing Director of Bankers Trust Company managing a global currency fund.
Johnson served as Chief Economist of the US Senate Banking Committee under the leadership of Chairman William Proxmire (D. Wisconsin). Before this, he was Senior Economist of the US Senate Budget Committee under the leadership of Chairman Pete Domenici (R. New Mexico).
Johnson was an Executive Producer of the Oscar winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney, and is the former President of the National Scholastic Chess Foundation. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of both the Economic Policy Institute and the Campaign for America’s Future.
Johnson received a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.S. in both Electrical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

Mr. Wu Hongbo was appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs on 1 August 2012. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Wu served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Federal Republic of Germany. Among his various diplomatic assignments, Mr. Wu served as China’s Ambassador to the Philippines.

Professor of International Affairs at The New School, and Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is the Director of the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs and Professor of International Affairs at The New School. Her teaching and research have focused on human rights and development, global health, and global goal setting and governance by indicators. From 1995 to 2004, she was lead author and director of the UNDP Human Development Reports. Her recent publications include: Millennium Development Goals: Ideas, Interests and Influence (Routledge 2017); Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights (with T. Lawson-Remer and S. Randolph, Oxford 2015), winner of the American Political Science Association’s 2016 Best Book in Human Rights Scholarship and the 2019 Grawemeyer Prize for Ideas to Improve the World Order.

Fukuda-Parr contributes actively to international policy and research processes. Most recent appointments include the UN Committee on Development Policy as Vice Chair, the Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines and Innovation, and Boards of Knowledge Ecology International and International Association for Feminist Economics. She directs the Independent Panel on Global Governance for Health at the University of Oslo, and also serves as Distinguished Fellow at the JICA Research Institute, Tokyo.

Management Collective Member, DIVA for Equality

Viva Tatawaqa is a management collective member of Diverse Voices and Action for Equality in Fiji and RESURJ, a global alliance of feminists under 40 years of age, working for Sexual and Reproductive Justice. She is a young Pacific feminist grassroots community facilitator and mobilizer and works on many initiatives at local, national, regional and global levels on issues of universal human rights, social, economic, ecological and climate justice.

This includes Viva’s work as a co-convenor of the Pacific Partnerships on Gender, Climate change and Sustainable Development with groups across Pacific small island states; a youth and women led Pacific Urgent Action Hub for Climate Justice carrying community led analysis, advocacy campaigns and movement building work. Viva is also the founder, with other local LGBTI groups of an innovative peer based support group on SRHR, mental health and wellbeing, as well as a key activist in the Pacific Feminist SRHR Coalition.

As part of her work Viva is engaged in the Fiji Young Women’s Forum, Review
Beijing+20 Young Women’s Group, CSW Pacific young women’s group, Fiji NGO Coalition on Human Rights, and spends much of her time in urban poor, rural and remote organising, as well as following key global intergovernmental processes including HLPF, COP, CSW and others.

Addressing injustices and discrimination of all kinds has always been Viva’s
challenge and joy in her work, and being part of feminist social organising has been an empowering experience in her life and work.