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.

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 Logitech, 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.

Zeynep Kudatgobilik is currently the Citi Client Organization Chief Administrative Officer. 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 Johns 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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

As Special Advisor to the World Food Programme (WFP) on Maternal & Child Health and Nutrition, UNHCR Patron for Maternal & Newborn Health (2018-2024) and Convener of the Roadmap to Accelerate Progress for Every Newborn in Humanitarian Settings 2020-2025, Princess Sarah supports efforts to reduce maternal, child and newborn mortality and morbidity, and champion the health, wellbeing, empowerment and contribution of girls and women in fragile and humanitarian settings. Princess Sarah led Every Woman Every Child Everywhere, an unprecedented global multi-stakeholder movement to integrate humanitarian and fragile settings in the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, a roadmap adopted by the World Health Assembly to end preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents by 2030.

Princess Sarah is a member of the Executive Board of The New Humanitarian, and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Humanitarian Health Advisory Committee. She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, an MSc in Development Studies and an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Elwy Taymour is CEO at Pharos Holding for Financial Investments, a company based out of Cairo Egypt, specializing in setting up and investing in non-banking financial services companies. Pharos Holding was the operator of Egypt’s 3rd largest brokerage company, as well as an award-winning advisory business, before selling both companies to Egypt’s largest commercial bank.

An industry veteran who has worked in financial centers in London and New York, Taymour was vice president of securities brokerage at EFG-Hermes, the region’s largest investment banking company, and a member of the firm’s board of directors for four years. During his MBA studies, he accepted a post in the Investment Banking division at Merrill Lynch International in London, England as a summer associate. Taymour was later vice president of sales at Auerbach Grayson & Co., where he was responsible for selling and marketing the Egyptian and Middle Eastern stock markets.

He was the CEO of the online trading site ArabFinance.com, Egypt's first attempt at online trading. Taymour subsequently became chief financial officer of regional digital publishing and IT conglomerate LinkdotNet, where he was responsible for the company’s legal, financial, and logistical operations and oversaw LinkdotNet’s expansion plans and restructured the company in preparation for an IPO. Currently, Taymour is also Co-Founder and CEO of Abgad, a company whose mission is to make the educational journey accessible and affordable to all. He is also the ex-Chairman of Kashat, Egypt's first nano-lender. He is a serial entrepreneur who started and managed 6 companies in diverse regulatory environments including Egypt and the UK. A graduate of the American University in Cairo, where he obtained a degree in industrial engineering, Taymour completed his MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business with a specialisation in finance and management.

Christina Vrachnos is a multi-lingual communications strategist and storyteller based in California. She has spent 20 years navigating complex organizations and producing data-driven results, including running several advocacy campaigns for the United Nations, crafting communication strategies for UCSF's Institute for Global Health, and overseeing key international conferences to advance women’s leadership in global health. She began her career as a Press Officer at UNHQ in New York.  She holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and a master's in Economics and International Affairs from Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.

Jim Brady most recently served as vice president of Journalism at Knight Foundation, overseeing its portfolio of more than $250 million in journalism grants.

During his Knight tenure, Brady was instrumental in developing the strategic framework behind Press Forward, a $500 million effort to revitalize local news in the United States. A longtime digital media innovator and executive, Brady guided Knight’s investments in sustainable and scalable local news business models that allowed for revenue diversification, market expansion, strategic partnerships and innovative product development.

Before his appointment at Knight, Brady served as CEO of Spirited Media, which operated local news sites Billy Penn in Philadelphia, The Incline in Pittsburgh, and Denverite in Denver before selling the businesses in 2019. Prior to that, Brady’s roles included Executive Editor of washingtonpost.com, Editor in Chief of Digital First Media, Head of News and Sports for America Online, General Manager of TBD.com and Public Editor of ESPN from 2015-18.

Craig Spencer, MD, MPH is an emergency medicine physician and Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy, and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. For nearly two decades, he has worked at the intersection of global health, humanitarian response, and pandemic preparedness.

Dr. Spencer has served across Africa, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Central America, addressing urgent health and human rights challenges. His projects have included investigating maternal mortality in Burundi, child separation in emergencies in Congo and South Sudan, hepatitis E surveillance in Chad, and coordinating Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) epidemiological response during the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. He has also provided medical care aboard MSF’s Mediterranean search-and-rescue vessel.

Elected to the Board of Directors of MSF USA in 2019, he now serves on its Board of Advisors. At Brown, he focuses on the historical determinants of public health and humanitarian response. His writing has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other leading outlets. He was elected a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2024.

With over 25 years of international experience across global corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, and purpose-driven organisations, Vindou is a leadership and organisational advisor recognised for driving transformation through people, culture, and strategy. As the Founder of The Nextep, an executive coaching and organisational consulting firm based in Switzerland, she partners with executives, teams, and boards to translate human potential into business performance and sustainable growth.

Her global career spans senior People and Culture leadership roles with Bumble Inc., Novartis, PwC, General Mills, and the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), where she led large-scale cultural integration, organisational design, and leadership development initiatives. A Swiss national of Indian origin, born in Africa, Vindou brings an inclusive, cross-sector perspective and deep experience navigating complexity across geographies and industries.