Speakers

Lecturer in philosophy in the Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Exeter. He is a member of Egenis (Centre of Life Sciences, Exeter), an associate researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and an external collaborator at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, both at the University of Cambridge. He is a founding member of Extinct, a philosophy and palaeontology blog. Adrian is a philosopher of science, best known for his work in historical sciences – archaeology, geology, and palaeontology – but equally interested in the study of life sciences, existential risk, and the philosophy of creativity. Currie received his PhD in 2014 from the Australian National University and has taught at the Universities of Victoria, Sydney (Australia), Calgary (Canada) and Cambridge (United Kingdom).

Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Sciences Po, in Paris.

Senior researcher of the OCP Policy Center (Rabat).

Chair of the Advisory Board of the EU-Brazil Association (Brussels).

Researcher at the Centre for Natural Resources and Environment (CERENA-IST), Member of the World Energy Council’s Future Energy Leaders, currently pursuing a PhD in Petroleum Engineering. Her professional career includes studies in hydraulics, water resources, oil and gas. Energy transition, climate change and sustainability are her main research interests.

Mayor of Baião since the local elections in October 2025.
Degree in Nutrition Sciences from the University of Porto.

Professor of Political Studies at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Director of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Minister of Finance of Chile (2006–2010). He holds a PhD in economics from Columbia University. He has consulted for the IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and for governments, central banks, and private companies around the world.

President of the George Town Institute of Open and Advanced Studies, Penang, Malaysia. He has held senior positions in central banks and financial regulatory institutions in Asia, and publishes and comments on global finance. In April 2013, he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Head of Operations at Geopolitical Futures. She is an analyst of international economics and European security. She teaches at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration of Romania and at the Carol I National Defence University of Romania. She holds a PhD in Economics and International Business from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

PhD in Petroleum Reservoir Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico and Imperial College.

He is a retired professor from Instituto Superior Técnico, where he taught Integrated Energy Resource Planning and Management.

He was chairman of the Executive Committee of Partex between 2004 and 2021.

Secretary-General of the United Nations. Prior to his appointment, he served for 10 years as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was a member of the Assembly of the Republic for 17 years. From 1981 to 1983, António Guterres was a Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He was vice-president of the Socialist International from 1992 to 1999 and president from 1999 until mid-2005. He founded the Portuguese Council for Refugees and the Portuguese Consumers’ Association (DECO). António Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, an alliance of leaders, former presidents and prime ministers. He holds a degree in Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Millennium BCP Foundation (since 2018).

He was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities (2004-05).

Chairman of the Board of Directors of SOFID, the Portuguese Development Finance Company.

He holds a degree in Economics from ISEG at the University of Lisbon and a PhD in Economics from Universidade de Lisboa.

He is an Associate Professor with Aggregation at the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, ISCSP-UL, and at Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa.

He is President of the Benjamin Franklin Institute and Vice-President of OSCOT – Observatory of Security, Crime and Terrorist Organisations.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2012–2017).

President of the Assembly of the Republic (2022–2024). Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal (2015–2022). He was Minister of National Defence (2009–2011), Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (2005–2009), Minister of Education (2000–2001), Minister of Culture (2001–2002) and Member of Parliament. He joined the Socialist Party in 1990.
He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University Institute of Lisbon and is a professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto. He has held various university management positions, including president of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Economics of Porto and vice-chancellor of the University of Porto. É autor de vários livros no domínio da
epistemologia das ciências sociais, da sociologia da cultura e do desenvolvimento, e do
pensamento político.

Regional Director of the Timbuctu Institute in Dakar. Lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Religious Studies at Gaston Berger University, Senegal. Founder of the Observatory on Religious Radicalism and Conflicts in Africa. PhD in Political Science from Lumière Lyon 2 University. Its studies focus on endogenous strategies, border dynamics and rapid responses to crises.

Strategic consultant in Public Policy and International Relations. Academic Correspondent of the International Academy of Portuguese Culture. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the University of Bristol. He founded and was Global Managing Partner of True Bridge Consultancy Group.

Director of Cleantech for Iberia.

Senior academic from Stone Center.

Assistant Professor at ISCTE-IUL, member of its Centre for International Studies (CEI-IUL) and Associate Researcher at The King’s College.

Primeiro tenor de ópera, Lisboa & Roma.

Mayor of Lisbon. He was European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation (2014-2019), Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, Member of Parliament, co-founder and manager of Crimson Investment Management, Managing Director of Aguirre Newman, Associate at Eurohypo Real Estate Investment Bank, Associate at Goldman Sachs and Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Researcher at the Institute of Systems and Robotics, IST-UL.

To Peace Project Founder

Director of the Elcano Royal Institute, Madrid, and Professor of Contemporary History at CEU San Pablo University. He worked at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset (1997–2000) and at the Fundación José Ortega y Gasset (2001). At Oxford, he was a History Assistant at Corpus Christi College, J. A. Pye Fellow at University College, and Junior Research Fellow at St Antony’s College. He has published six books and dozens of articles on Spanish history and politics and foreign policy, with an emphasis on the European dimension. His latest published book is Does the liberal international order have a future? (2017). Since 2017, he has been a Companion of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George for his services to British-Spanish relations. He holds a degree in History and Modern Languages and a PhD from the University of Oxford.

Assistant Professor, ISCTE-IUL, and Chair of the Africa-Europe Interdisciplinary Study Group (AEGIS)

Senior journalist from SIC

Executive Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She was Executive Director of the Portuguese Treasury and Public Debt Management Agency (2014–2022). Previously, for nine years, he was Chief Economist at Banco BPI. She is an economist with a master’s degree in Business Management and Administration from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

Founder and Executive Director, Center for Transatlantic Relations.

Founder and CEO of Defined.ai. Has a hybrid background in linguistics, engineering and artificial intelligence. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Network of Experts, Goldman Sachs included it in its list of the 100 most ‘intriguing’ entrepreneurs of 2021, and Forbes America ranked Defined.ai among the 50 most promising artificial intelligence companies.

European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. She was a member of the board (2016-2017) and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Portugal (2017-2019), Portugal’s representative on the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (2016-2019), Member of the European Parliament (2004-2016) and Member of the Portuguese Parliament (2002-2004). Elisa was Minister for Planning and Territorial Organisation (1999–2002) and Minister for the Environment (1995–1999). She was Executive Vice-President of the Porto Industrial Association (1992-1994), Vice-President of the Northern Region Coordination Committee (1988-1992) and Member of the Board of Directors of the National Statistics Institute (1989-1992). A professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto since 1997, she obtained her PhD in 1985, her master’s degree in Economics from the University of Reading in 1981, and her bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Porto in 1977.

Researcher at the Centre for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS Johns Hopkins, Washington DC, and professor of Political Science at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. She leads the Foreign Policy Initiative and the Women’s Leadership in International Relations programme at the Institute for Research on Policy for Women in Washington DC.

Assistant professor at the ICP of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Economist, master’s degree in political science, career diplomat.

He was ambassador to Vietnam, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Italy. He also served as Undersecretary of Defence.

Between 2022 and 2024, he served as Minister of Finance.
He was Mayor of Lisbon between 2015 and 2021.

CEO of DefSEC Analytics Africa.

Professor Amartya Sen in inequality studies and director of the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE). He has had a long career at the World Bank, his most recent position being Acting Director of Development Policy in the Development Research Group. Francisco is a non-resident researcher at the Institute of Labour Economics (Bonn). He has published extensively on poverty and inequality in developing countries. He received the Haralambos Simeonides, Adriano Romariz Duarte and Kendricks Prizes. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Inequality, Review of Income and Wealth, and WB Economic Review. He taught at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and at the École d’Économie de Paris. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Analista geopolítico e estrategista reconhecido em assuntos internacionais, além de fundador e presidente da Geopolitical Futures.

Head of Privacy da FUTURA. Professor, Faculty of Law, Universidade Lusófona de Lisboa, PhD in Law from NOVA University Lisbon. In 2015, she won the research category of the António Sousa Franco European Prize with his essay “Understanding the judicial activism of the CJEU. Ronald Dworkin’s ‘explanation’”.

Member of the European Parliament in the EPP group. She has held various positions at the European Commission, including advisor to the Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation and principal advisor to the President of the Commission. She has twice served as Minister for Science, Higher Education (and Innovation). She is a Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.

Executive Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Emerging Markets Forum, as well as Founding Director, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Centennial Group International, based in Washington, D.C. He held senior management positions at the World Bank for nearly 30 years and has published extensively on emerging market economies, financial development and infrastructure.

Diretor executivo da Fundação Portugal-África

Vice-Dean for the Pioneer Alliance and professor at Iscte-IUL, Lisbon.

Executive Editor, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Non-resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council Centre for GeoEconomics.

Programme Director – Russian International Affairs Council.

Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (2011–2017), Kuala Lumpur. Former Director of Finance, Public Management and Trade, Southeast Asia Department, Asian Development Bank. Member of the Advisory Group to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Holds an M.Phil (Economics) from Yale University.

Editorial Director at SAPO. She was Deputy Director at Diário de Notícias and Executive Director at Dinheiro Vivo. A journalist for over twenty years, most of them in economic publications. She began her career at Independente, from where she moved to Diário Económico, and was part of the teams that founded Jornal I and Dinheiro Vivo.

Visual artist.
Works in painting, customizing sneakers and other objects, urban art murals, illustration, and design. Regularly participates in urban art events, paint jams, solo and group exhibitions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Portugal (2022–2024). Minister of National Defence (2018-2022), European Union Ambassador to Brazil (2015-2018) and India (2011-2015), and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (2005-2011). He was Professor of International Relations at the University of Coimbra. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Oxford.

Public relations consultant and editor of @o_paragrafo and @jornalcronico. He graduated in Political Science and International Relations and is very active in campaigning and organising, always seeking to better understand the inner workings of institutions and social partners.

President of the Platform for Sustainable Growth. Former Director of the OECD’s Development Cooperation Directorate (2016-2021). He was Minister for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (2013-2015), Secretary of State for the Environment (2004-2005) and for Science and Higher Education (2003-2004). He was also a member of the Portuguese and European Parliaments.

Consultant to the Board of the Bank of Portugal. Chairman of the Boards of Directors of SG Fundos Pensões BdP and Valora, SA. Among other positions held, he was Chairman of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (2011-2016), Deputy Governor of the Bank of Portugal (2002-2011) and Alternate Governor for Portugal at the International Monetary Fund (2007-2011).

Chief Executive of the Policy Centre for the New South.

Professor of Environmental Social Sciences at the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University and Principal Researcher at the Institute for Future Studies. Her research focuses on global environmental policies, the role of non-state actors in climate change governance after the Paris Agreement, and United Nations negotiations on sustainable development by the Swedish Governmental Council on Climate Policy. She was a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Lund University (2012-2014), a visiting lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Oxford (2013) and a Wallenberg postdoctoral researcher in the field of environment and sustainability at the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2002-2004).

Director of the Centre on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia University. The Code of Capital was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Financial Times and Business Insider. She has taught and researched at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Law in Hamburg. Pistor has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Institutional Economics, European Business Organisation Law Review, American Journal of Comparative Law, and Columbia Journal for European Law. In 2012, she received, together with Martin Hellwig, the Max Planck Research Award on International Financial Regulation. In 2014, he received the Allen & Overy Prize for the best article on law from the European Corporation Governance Institute. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences.

Director of the Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, Nesta.

Kenyeh Barlay is President of the g7+ and Minister of Planning and Economic Development of Sierra Leone. Previously, Kenyeh Barlay was a member of the Executive Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB), where he represented The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan. Between 2013 and 2016, he coordinated the program funded by the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for agricultural productivity in the Mano River Union sub-region (WAAPP). Throughout her career, she has held various positions in the areas of micro-credit, poverty eradication, gender equality and women’s economic empowerment

Europe and Africa Director, World Resources Institute.

Coordinator of the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS), which he helped to establish. Coordinated the Advanced Computing and Security area at the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Graduate in Systems Engineering and Computer Science from Universidade do Minho and Master’s degree in Law and Security from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

President of the Clube of Lisbon

Since the 1990s, he has held various positions in the Portuguese government, namely Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (1995–1997 and 1999–2002), Minister of Defence (2005–2006) and Minister of State and Foreign Affairs (2006-2011).

President of the Social and Economic Counci.

Luís Tomé is Director of the Department of International Relations and Full Professor at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. He also directs OBSERVARE – Observatory of International Relations, a research centre at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. He is a Research Fellow at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IPRI-NOVA) and a Visiting Professor at the National Defence Institute (IDN). His research areas focus on geopolitics and security studies in the Euro-Atlantic, Eurasian and Asia-Pacific regions.

Director of Information, LUSA.

Professor at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

Chairperson of the Quelimane Municipal Executive Council, where he has won every local election since its inception in 2011. He is Vice-President for Africa at ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability). He graduated from the Joaquim Chissano Higher Institute of International Relations in Maputo. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of East Anglia.

Professor of Anthropology (with Aggregation) at Iscte-IUL and Integrated Researcher at the Centre for International Studies (CEI-IUL). A specialist in symbolic anthropology, he is also an artist – a designer and illustrator with published work – and a civil rights activist. As an author, his publications are widely consulted in libraries in several countries. Member of the Club of Lisbon.