Paula Fray is the founder of fraycollege – a pan-African accredited media training organisation which focuses on providing practical workplace skills for journalists, communicators and business leaders. The first female editor of the Saturday Star newspaper in South Africa, Fray was the Regional Director: Africa for Inter Press Service overseeing a regional news agency publishing in English, French, Portuguese, Swahili and Arabic.In 2005 she launched frayintermedia, a content creation agency that specialises in communication strategy development and implementation including the production of development content across platforms. In 2023, she co-founded the fraymedia Foundation which seeks to support women in media across the African continent.She is President of The New Humanitarian, a Geneva-based news agency and a former board member of Africa Check and Accountability Lab SA. She serves on the board of the Aurum Institute and chairs the board of Youth Health Africa. Fray is a Print and Digital Media SA fellow.  A recipient of the prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, she is a former member of the Nieman Foundation Advisory Board at Harvard. Fray graduated with a BJourn degree from Rhodes University and has a Woman and Law Certificate from UNISA.

After retiring from a long career at PwC, Martin Aked served as Treasurer of the board of MSF International and also sat on the boards of the global peacebuilding organisation Interpeace and the audit committee of WorldWildlife Fund International, all three non-profits based in or near Geneva. He is well-versed in strategic governance and finance issues, in which he also continues to provide services on a commercial basis.

Sacha Meuter has been researching and working with media in fragile contexts for almost 20 years. At Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss non-profit organization that supports local media and journalists in some of the most challenging media environments, he develops partnerships with academic actors, think tanks and international organizations to design and implement media impact assessment studies, to elaborate online and offline media monitoring tools and to improve media support policies. His work includes regular field missions, including in the Sahel and Central Africa.

Dominique Ben Dhaou has been working in Human Resources leadership roles in international organisations for more than 30 years and has experience in 12 different industries across continents. As the Founder and Managing Director of PointNorth International, she helps professionals and executives reinvent a career that truly fits their experience, values, skills and purpose. She is also a strategic and human capital adviser for executives. In 2016 and 2017, Ms. Ben Dhaou was recognised with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional in Human Resources award by the International Association of Top Professionals.

Hayley Nelson brings 25 years of insights from the business side of media, and skills in leading teams around marketing, technology and innovation. She has helped both start-ups and big companies alike navigate digital disruption, transforming their approach to publishing and their relationship with their audience.  Ms. Nelson has led digital and marketing innovation initiatives for Salesforce, Airbnb, The New York Times, and Wired Magazine. Ms. Nelson is adjunct faculty at Northwestern University's Medill School, the graduate school of journalism, and an adviser to start-up founders and CEOs. She holds an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), a master’s degree in Economics and International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University, and a bachelor’s degree in History from Northwestern University. She is based in San Francisco, CA.

Paula Escobar-Chavarría is a Chilean journalist and opinion columnist at La Tercera, CNN Chile, and radio Tele13; a professor at Universidad Diego Portales, where she is Founder and Executive Director of the Chair on Women and Media; a board member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders foundation; a board member of Comunidad Mujer, a non-profit that promotes women’s rights; and a board member of the National Opera House of Chile and of the Imagen de Chile Foundation. Ms. Escobar-Chavarría has published ten non-fiction books, including one in which she interviewed all the Chilean presidents since the return of democracy. She is the former Magazines Editor at El Mercurio, a major newspaper in Chile; the former Editor-in-Chief of Caras magazine; and the former Editorial Director of Televisa Group in Chile. She was named a Young Global Leader in 2006 by the World Economic Forum, and a Yale World Fellow in 2012. She won the Lenka Franulic award for the best woman journalist in Chile in 2014, and was chosen as one of the BBC 100 Inspiring women of 2015. In 2019, she and her team won the UAH Excellence in Journalism Award in print media in Chile for their coverage of sexual misconduct and abuse. In 2020, she was elected a Poynter Fellow.

Syed Nazakat is the founder and CEO of DataLeads, a digital media company he founded to promote open data and the democratisation of information at scale. He has more than 18 years of experience across broadcast, print, and online journalism. He has reported from more than 25 countries, covering the war in Afghanistan, political turmoil in Nepal, development issues in Laos and Cambodia, unrest in Thailand, the conflict in India’s Kashmir region, and the civil war in South Sudan. He was the first Indian journalist to report from an al-Qaeda rehabilitation camp in Saudi Arabia, and in 2013 he secured unprecedented access to the military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to report on prison abuse cases. Mr. Nazakat is a founder of Health Analytics Asia, a multimedia health reporting platform that is forging strong collaborations between journalists and doctors to strengthen health reporting and fact-checking in Asia. Also, as a Program Director of the Google News Initiative’s India Training Network, he leads one of the world’s biggest fact-checking training operations – one that has resulted in the launch of many similar initiatives in India, in multiple languages, and benefiting hundreds of journalism institutions and media organisations. Over the years, he has trained and mentored hundreds of journalists, media educators, and media students across Asia in specially designed data boot camps.

Churchill Otieno is a distinguished journalist and media leader with over 23 years of experience in digital media, newsroom leadership, and media innovation. He serves as President of The Africa Editors Forum (TAEF) and Executive Director of the Eastern Africa Editors Society (EAES). A champion of media innovation, Otieno is at the forefront of efforts to develop sustainable media business models that preserve public interest journalism. He also chairs the Steering Council of the Africa Media Convention and serves on the advisory board of the Leadership program at the University of Central Lancashire, UK.

A former President of the Kenya Editors’ Guild and Managing Editor for Digital at Nation Media Group, Otieno has led transformative digital initiatives in the media sector, focusing on regulatory frameworks and the digital transition of newsrooms. His influence extends to academia where he has conducted several media-related studies and served as visiting lecturer at the Aga Khan University’s Graduate School of Media and Communications and Moi University. Churchill Otieno holds an MBA from Strathmore University, an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Communication Studies from Moi University, and a Diploma in Journalism from Nyegezi. He has been a visiting scholar at New York University and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Journalism Innovation and Leadership from the University of Central Lancashire, UK.

Zaina Erhaim is a Syrian journalist and freedom of expression advocate with two decades of experience in this field. She works as a managing editor of Jeem which is a feminist Arabic website. She also provides consultancy in media and communications for different organisations working in the MENA region and. Before working independently, Zaina was the communications manager for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Ms. Erhaim fled Syria in 2016 and was displaced in Turkey for two years before relocating to the UK where she became a refugee. She covered parts of the Syrian revolution for the BBC and has also published in The Economist, the Guardian and German newspaper Die Zeit; and directed and filmed short documentary films. When the Syrian revolution began, she participated in various efforts to help refugees, distribute aid, and provide psychological and other support to women. Ms. Erhaim studied journalism at the Faculty of Literature in Damascus and has a master’s degree in international journalism from City, University of London.

Zeynep Kudatgobilik is currently a Managing Director in Citigroup as the Transformation Lead for the Risk and Controls programmes and efforts. Previously she was the Risk and Controls Lead for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region within Citi.  Before Citigroup, Zeynep has worked at Deutsche Bank for 15 years in various roles in New York and London with experience in risk management, controls, conduct, compliance and corporate governance, regulatory management and working as an Economist covering emerging markets.  Previously Zeynep has worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C. as private sector specialist in the Europe and Central Asia Region. Zeynep holds an MA in Economics and International Affairs from John's Hopkins, School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Clark University. She is an active driver of Inclusion and Diversity agenda and a passionate advocate of culture transformation, and volunteer/ charity work.