Bertrand G. Ramcharan, Ph.D. served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a.i. from 2003 to 2004 with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General, and as the Deputy High Commissioner from 1998 to 2003.

He was Professor and First Swiss Chair of International Human Rights Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva from 2006 to 2008, has been the Chancellor of the University of Guyana, and is a Barrister-at-Law of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. He was a UN Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and, previously, a Fellow of the London School of Economics.

Prof. Ramcharan was a member of the UN Panel of Eminent Persons on Human Rights in Darfur in 2007, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on the peace process in Georgia in 2008, and a member of the International Labour Organization Commission of Inquiry into trade union and human rights in Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2010. He is the author or editor of thirty books and numerous articles. He additionally served as President of UPR Info for a period of two years.

He holds a doctorate in international law from the London School of Economics as well as the diploma in international law from the Hague Academy of International Law.

J. Christopher Giancarlo is an American attorney and former business executive who served as 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Mr. Giancarlo was first nominated as a CFTC Commissioner by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed in June 2014. He was subsequently nominated as CFTC Chairman by President Donald Trump and again unanimously confirmed in August 2017. He departed the CFTC in July 2019 following the expiration of his five-year term. Before entering public service, Mr. Giancarlo served as the executive vice president of financial services firm GFI Group Inc. and as executive vice president and U.S. legal counsel of Fenics Software. Previously, he practiced law in New York and London as a partner in the law firms of Brown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steiner and Giancarlo & Gleiberman and an associate with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle.

Mr. Giancarlo is a board member of the American Financial Exchange, the sponsor of Ameribor and Ameribor Futures. Giancarlo is also a renowned blockchain technology advocate and key contributor to the global discourse on cryptocurrencies and digital assets. During his tenure as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the agency published primers on virtual currencies and smart contracts, the first bitcoin futures contracts were offered, and the CFTC launched LabCFTC as the agency’s stakeholder in the digital evolution of derivatives trading markets.

An academic, historian, and human rights activist, Antoni Macierewicz is the legendary leader of the anti-communist resistance in the Polish People's Republic. He founded the Workers Defense Committee (KOR), the forerunner of Solidarity, later directing Solidarity’s Center for Social Research. He also established one of the first independent publications of the communist era. A former political prisoner, he was arrested over 20 times.

Since the fall of communism, Speaker Macierewicz has served at the highest levels of government. He is the Senior Speaker of Parliament, and had been the Minister of National Defense (2015-2018) and the Minister of Internal Affairs (1991-1992). He was the founding Head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, Secretary of State in the Ministry of National Defense, and Chairman of the Verification Commission. Additionally, he presently heads the Polish governmental inquiry into the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash.

During his most recent tenure at the Ministry of National Defense, he led successful efforts to station U.S. and other NATO troops in Poland, form the Territorial Defense Force, maintain a defense budget that exceeds 2% of GDP, modernize armaments, and enhanced transatlantic academic collaboration.

Speaker Macierewicz holds a master's degree from the Institute of History of the University of Warsaw.

Herman J. Cohen is an expert in African and European affairs and a retired career diplomat. His last position was Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. During his 38-year career with the U.S. Foreign Service, he served in five African countries and twice in France. He was the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal, with dual accreditation to the Gambia. He also served as Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.

Ambassador Cohen has been a Professorial Lecturer in foreign policy studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the panel on Transatlantic Relations of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. He is the author of two books, namely Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent (2000) and The Mind of the African Strong Man: Conversations with Dictators, Statesmen and Father Figures (2015).

Ambassador Cohen’s honors and awards include the French Legion of Honor, the Belgian Order of Leopold II, the U.S. Foreign Service rank of Career Ambassador, and the Townsend Harris Distinguished Alumni Award of the City College of New York. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. Ambassador Cohen received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the City College of New York and a master’s degree in international relations from the American University.

Uchenna A. Ekwo, Ph.D. is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Coal City University. He is a journalist by training, an educator by choice, and a mediator by temperament. Prof. Ekwo is on the faculty of the Department of Mass Communications at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, and at the School of Public Affairs and Administration of Rutgers University – Newark.

He also serves as Cochair of the Annual Gershowitz Conference on Media and Democratic Governance. A scholar-practitioner, Prof. Ekwo is the founding President at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives – a media and policy think tank in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

He had an impressive career working in different media platforms and served as the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists. A frequent public speaker, Prof. Ekwo has delivered invited lectures at international conferences across five continents, including his 2012 address in South Africa to the Pan-African Parliament on “Communication Strategies for Peace and Development in Africa.” Prof. Ekwo serves on the board of the Consortium for International Management, Policy and Development.

Prof. Ekwo has authored four books and numerous other publications. His research interests are media convergence and Africa’s political economy.

Seth Shelden is the United Nations Liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition working to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. In this capacity, he assists governments in signing, ratifying, and otherwise acceding to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. He represents ICAN in promoting the entry into force and universalization of the treaty.

Mr. Shelden has a background in law. After nearly seven years at the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, in its Intellectual Property and Technology Group, today he is a partner at the law firm of Farkas & Neurman and an Adjunct Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. In the past, Mr. Shelden has held visiting professorships at the Cardozo School of Law (also as an Adjunct Professor), the University of Latvia (as a Fulbright Scholar), and Toyo University (as a Fulbright Specialist). He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.

Mr. Shelden has a J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and a B.A. degree, with Honors and Distinction, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a certificate of completion in International Nuclear Safeguards Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Edmund Janniger has a proven track record directing complex political and policy-related matters. Mr. Janniger is the Deputy Chief of Staff to Speaker Antoni Macierewicz, a position he has held since 2015.

From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Janniger served in the Ministry of National Defense of Poland, first as Advisor to the Minister, and subsequently managing the Minister’s special initiatives. Mr. Janniger holds the record as the youngest sub-cabinet official in Poland’s history.

Mr. Janniger is the Director-General of the International Security Forum, maintains a faculty appointment at Marconi University, and was elected by faculty, students, staff, and alumni to three terms on the Rutgers University Senate Executive Committee. He is also the Vice President for International Programs at the Center for Media & Peace Initiatives.

Mr. Janniger has published extensively, especially in the realms of international security and transatlantic relations, maintaining a column entitled “The Warsaw Vantage Point” in Newsmax. Mr. Janniger is an Officer of the Order of Saint Lazarus, a distinction he received in 2018.