Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of the French data protection authority or CNIL and Chair of the EU Working Party (WP29) on personal data protection

Recent topics in the news such as the European Union’s data protection regulation and the “right to be forgotten” or “delisted” are changing the way we view data protection and notions of privacy. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin is the President of the French Data Protection authority (“Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés”). She has been a member of the CNIL since 2004. Appointed as Deputy Chair of this authority from 2009 to 2011, she became its President in 2011. She was reelected by the members of the Commission in 2014. She was also elected Chair of the Article 29 Working Party (Group of the 28 European data protection authorities ) for a two-year term in 2014. She graduated in France from the HEC School of Business Management (“Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales”), the National Administration School (“Ecole Nationale d’Administration”) and the Multimedia Institute (“Institut Mutltimédia”).

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Wilson Abney, Former Chief Counsel to the US Senate Ethics Committee and Senior Counsel in the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Wilson Abney has been an attorney working in public service ethics for more than forty years. He served as Counsel, Chief Counsel, and Staff Director to the United States Senate Ethics Committee from 1980-1982. During that time he was also selected to serve as counsel to the Senate Impeachment Trial Committee for the trial of Federal District Judge Harry Claiborne. He authored the “fact book” used by the Trial Committee and the full Senate in debating whether Judge Claiborne should be removed from office. After leaving the Ethics Committee he served as Ethics Counsel for President Clinton’s transition team. He joined the Commerce Department in 1994 as an advisor in the Department’s Ethics Division. From 1996 to 2009 he consulted with public and private organizations on ethics issues and wrote on the need to reform the Congressional ethics process. In 2009 he rejoined the government as Ethics Counsel to the Congressional Oversight Panel, a legislative commission established to oversee the bail-out of the financial sector. In 2011 he was asked by the Panel’s Chair, Elizabeth Warren, to assist in the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He served as Senior Counsel in the Bureau’s Office of General Counsel, retiring in 2012. Mr. Abney continues to demonstrate his life-long passion for public and private sector ethics by studying, writing and consulting on the subject.

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Philip J. Jennings, UNI Global Union, General Secretary

Philip J. Jennings has been General Secretary of UNI Global Union since its creation. From 1997, Philip worked to create a new global union spanning skills and services. The result was the creation of UNI Global Union on 1 January 2000. [Information quoted from UNI Global Union web site. For further biographical information about Philip J. Jennings kindly consult: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/uni.nsf/pages/aboutusEn] UNI Global Union is the voice of 20 million service sector workers around the world. Through 900 affiliated unions, UNI represents workers in 150 countries and in every region of the world. UNI represents workers in the Cleaning & Security; Commerce; Finance; Gaming; Graphical & Packaging; Hair & Beauty; ICTS; Media, Entertainment & Arts; Post & Logistics; Social Insurance; Sport; Temp & Agency Workers and Tourism industries. UNI Global Union’s mission is to grow and strengthen affiliated unions and UNI Global Union to improve the working conditions and lives of workers in the services and allied sectors. [Information quoted from UNI Global Union web site. For further information on UNI Global Union and its philosophy kindly consult: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/uni.nsf/pages/aboutusEn] Read more →

René Ricol, Founder, Ricol, Lasteyrie & Associés

Financial advising expert, former judiciary expert at the cour de cassation, René Ricol has been contributing for more than 35 years to the development and professionalization of corporate advising services for growth and performance. He is a Grand Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite and of the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. In 1987, he founded Ricol, Lasteyrie & Associés with Jean-Charles de Lasteyrie and Gilles de Courcel, currently one of the leaders in independent financial expertise and financial risk management in France. René Ricol has been active in national and international professional institutions: President of the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes from 1985 to 1989; and founder and Honorary President of the Compagnie des Conseils et Experts Financiers; and President of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Ordre des Experts Comptables from 1994 to 1998. In 1997 René Ricol was elected to the board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), which brings together professional organizations from 119 countries worldwide. He was President of IFAC from 2002 to 2004. During this time, learning lessons from the scandals that disrupted the financial markets, he initiated and resolved, together with international regulators and standard setters, a deep reform of the international accountancy profession and audit practices. For further biographical information, kindly consult: http://www.ricol-lasteyrie.fr/bio/RRicol.html Ricol Lasteyrie supports companies and investors in their analysis of the objectives and stakes in financial evaluation, strategic development or strategic financial analysis. Ricol Lasteyrie benefits from a unique positioning in the market, offering more than 25 years of the highest level experience at the intersection of financial evaluation and corporate finance. Teams of professionals bring experience from audit, merchant banks, financial analysis and stock exchange regulation and are led by 15 partners highly engaged in the firm’s various missions. They are all dedicated to providing clients with a personalized, custom-tailored, interactive and long-term relationship. For further information about Ricol Lasteyrie, kindly consult: http://www.ricol-lasteyrie.fr/ Read more →

Dr Sania Nishtar, Founder and President, Heartfile

Pakistan’s first female cardiologist, Dr Sania Nishtar is a global health expert and a proponent of health reform. She is founder of many health institutions in Pakistan—the NGO think tank Heartfile, Pakistan’s Health Policy Forum and Heartfile Health Financing. Internationally, she is a member of many Expert Working Groups and Task Forces of the World Health Organisation, a member of the board of the International Union for Health Promotion, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council, the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health, the Clinton Global Initiative and is Chair of GAVI’s Evaluation Advisory Committee. She has previously led many global initiatives, including the award wining Global World Heart Day campaign. She is a regular plenary speaker, chair or moderator at global health meetings and a part of organizing major international conferences. Sania Nishtar is a key health policy voice in Pakistan, the author of Pakistan’s first health reform plan, Pakistan’s first compendium of health statistics, and the country’s first national public health plan for NCDs. One of her books, an analysis of Pakistan’s health systems became the blue print for the country’s health policy. She has authored 6 books, more than 100 peer review articles and around the same number of op-eds. She is the recipient of Pakistan’s Sitara e-Imtiaz, a presidential award, Global Innovation award, the European Societies Population Science Award, and many accolades of the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge and the American Biographical Centre. Sania Nishtar holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and a Ph.D from Kings College, London. Read more →