Rima Al Mokarrab is Executive Director of Strategic Affairs at the Executive Affairs Authority, a government agency mandated to provide strategic policy advice to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE. She also chairs the Board of Tamkeen LLC, a company that delivers projects enriching Abu Dhabi’s social, cultural, and educational landscape. Al Mokarrab co-founded and currently co-chairs Ideas Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Aspen Institute. She also sits on the Board of Trustees of New York University, is a Board member of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, and previously served on the Board of the UAE Space Agency.

Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As co-chair, he shapes and approves foundation strategies, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and sets the organization’s overall direction. He works with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.

Bill co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen and led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and services. In 2008, Bill transitioned to focus full-time on his foundation’s work. Through his private office, Gates Ventures, he pursues his work in climate change and clean energy innovation, Alzheimer’s research and other healthcare issues, interdisciplinary education, and technology. He is also the founder of Breakthrough Energy, which works to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies.

In 2010, Bill, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will.

A global macro investor for more than 50 years, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates out of his two-bedroom apartment in NYC and ran it for most of its 48 years, building it into the largest and most successful hedge fund in the world under his leadership. Ray remains an investor and mentor at Bridgewater and serves on its board.

He is also the long-running New York Times bestselling author of Principles: Life and Work, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises.

He graduated with a B.S. in Finance from C.W. Post College in 1971 and received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1973.

He has been married to his wife, Barbara, for more than 40 years and has three grown sons and five grandchildren.

He is an active philanthropist with special interests in ocean exploration and helping to rectify the absence of equal opportunity in education, healthcare, and finance.

His Excellency, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Bank. He was the CEO of Mashreq for nearly 30 years and under his leadership, Mashreq grew from a small local bank, to a leading customer centric financial institution in the region known for its innovative products and services.

Furthermore, His Excellency is a member of the Board of Directors of Abdullah Al Ghurair Group of Companies, one of the biggest and most successful business groups in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, with operations spanning more than 20 countries and business roots stretching back half a century.

His Excellency was elected as a speaker on the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council (UAE Parliament), from 2007 until 2011. Previously, he sat on the Board of Directors of major companies such as Emaar, Dubai Investments, Visa International, MasterCard, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Co-Chairman of the Arab Business Council – World Economic Forum (WEF). He was also a member of the Consultative GCC Council for the GCC Leaders and President of The Knowledge Fund, and a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University, USA. His Excellency holds an Honours’ Degree from the California Polytechnic State University in Industrial Engineering.

Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe trained as a medical doctor. She is a businesswoman, philanthropist, and Chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

She is CEO of the Motsepe Foundation, a philanthropic organisation that she co-founded with her husband Dr Patrice Motsepe in 1998. Since becoming one of the first families from Africa to sign the Giving Pledge in 2013, she has grown the Motsepe Foundation into one of the largest philanthropic organisations on the continent.

The Motsepe Foundation has several long-standing programmes in education, aimed at STEM fields, and community development, to enable access to water, sanitation, technology, and other resources amongst underserved communities. With local and international partnerships, the Motsepe Foundation contributes to 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Motsepe Foundation became one of the first investors from Africa to join the Breakthrough Energy Ventures to identify opportunities to mitigate negative climate change effects. Dr Moloi-Motsepe is also a partner to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship to advance the social entrepreneurship agenda in Africa. Through the Motsepe Foundation, she is a partner to the Milken Institute where she supports global innovators and entrepreneurs who are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals. To date, the Milken-Motsepe Prize has identified and invested in innovation relating to agriculture and green energy.

With her husband, she is also the co-creator of the Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund at the Harvard University Center for African Studies, which supports faculty-led and student-driven research projects that focus on advancing key challenges and opportunities facing Africa.

Dr Moloi-Motsepe currently serves on the Harvard University Global Advisory Council, and Advisory Board for the Milken Institute’s Center for Strategic Philanthropy.