Victoria Billing was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal and Non-Resident Ambassador to the Republic of Cabo Verde in July 2019. She is also Ambassador to Guinea Bissau.
Victoria joined the FCO in 1997. She has previously been posted to Rangoon and Jerusalem.
Marguerite Soeteman-Reijnen is Chairman of the Executive Board of Aon Holdings (part of Aon Plc; NYSE AON) and other Holdings entities in the Netherlands and Global Chief Marketing Officer of Aon Inpoint. Aon is active in 120 countries around the globe and has 50,000 employees.
Aon Holdings is the statutory shareholder/parent company of over 400 Aon companies – engaged in international insurance and reinsurance brokerage, pensions and employee consulting as well as risk management advice and services in the field of insurances- in Europe Middle East Africa, Asia, Australia Pacific, Canada and Latin America; Aon Inpoint being Aon’s management consultancy arm. Marguerite has been with Aon and its predecessors for over 30 years.
Marguerite is an expert on diversity and inclusion and is Chair of the Advisory Board of SER Topvrouwen (the Dutch nationwide diversity C-suite female empowerment initiative). She also represents the Kingdom of the Netherlands and its private sector in the G20 EMPOWER Alliance.
In addition she holds various non-executive roles amongst others vice chairman of the Supervisory Board of international law firm NautaDutilh, member of the global Alumni board of Harvard Business School, member of the Supervisory board of the Dutch Royal Military Museums and member of the Executive Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands.
In 2021 she was awarded the Ambassador J. William Middendorf II award. This award is presented to individuals who have markedly served to strengthen relations between the United States and the Netherlands. In 2010 she was awarded “Women to Watch” by Business Insurance, USA.
Marguerite received a Master degree in Law from Erasmus University Rotterdam and is an alumna of INSEAD and Harvard Business School.
She lives in the Hague, The Netherlands and is married to Christiaan Soeteman. They have two children: Alexander and Isabelle.
Patrick Tsang is the Chairman of Tsangs Group, an innovation-focused global family office from Hong Kong that bridges East and West. Tsangs Group has direct investments across the world, ranging from financial services to entertainment and AI to clean tech. Born and raised in the United Kingdom with a deeply-rooted Chinese heritage, he has a robust global network investing in companies with a positive influence and positive impact. He has worked on numerous IPO and M&A transactions.
He is a qualified solicitor in England, Wales, and Hong Kong. He is active in various charity and business associations. He is a Fellow of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award World Fellowship and was awarded the China Economic Person of the Year during the China Economic Forum in 2014.
Bibi is specialized in the financial sector with over 18 years of professional experience, as a result of her passages at PwC and ANACOM, acquiring solid knowledge in financial auditing, corporate finance, and regulation, having been a member of the Regulatory Accounting Group – Board of European Regulators of Electronic Communications.
In 2017, Bibi accepted the challenge to develop the Venture Capital arm in a financial entity as partner and member of the Board of Directors. In 4 years, the first nine venture capital funds were created with more than €100m+ under management, becoming the reference area of this financial entity.
In the context of corporate social responsibility, in 2019, she joined GRACE’s Advisory Board.
In 2021, Bibi, challenged by the GED group, joins the company as Partner and member of the Board of Directors of GED Ventures Portugal to develop the Venture Capital arm and strengthen the company’s Iberian leadership.
Gareth is a global healthcare thought leader and the Founder and CEO of the World Health Innovation Summit. He is the Expert Lead on SDG3/4 for the UNGSII Foundation 25+5 SDG Cities Leadership Platform, Founder of the Global Social Prescribing Alliance, and a Member of Pope Francis’s Vatican COVID19 Commission Group 2 Looking to the Future.
Dr Noel Akpata is a member of the Global Steering Committee of the World Social Innovation Forum (WSIF). The World Social Innovation Forum is a global platform of social change-makers, social innovators, impact investors, policymakers and thought leaders in government, non-profit, and corporate sectors.
It is headquartered in Silicon Valley, USA and it aims to improve the lives of people and build stronger, healthier communities across the globe by providing a unique combination of educating, engaging, and connecting leaders in areas like impact investment, digital women entrepreneurship, digital healthcare, digital education, and smart city/village initiatives.
Dr. Noel Akpata is also a member of the Global advisory board of Singapore based OneAgrix.
OneAgrix is the poised to be the world’s largest agricultural and halal blockchain digital infrastructure project helping nation states achieve food security and food safety. He led OneAgrix to top 3 at the recently concluded International Finance Commission’s International Food Security Summit sponsored by the Government of Japan.
Dr Akpata is also the Africa Director of Horasis headquartered in Zurich Switzerland.
Horasis hosts annual meetings to advance solutions to the most critical challenges facing corporations today.
The participants of Horasis Meetings are global Chief Executive Officers, key business leaders from emerging markets, renowned thought leaders, relevant public figures including heads of government, Nobel laureates and the Global Academia.
Recently on October 31st 2020 and in a meeting hosted by the President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) at the Presidential Villa, the Government of Nigeria endorsed the creation of the Horasis-Nigeria Economic Development Council and the hosting of Horasis economic development initiatives in Nigeria.
Dr Akpata is also the founder of initiatives like the Nigeria Electricity Market Summit Group, Nigeria Feeds The world Initiative, Horasis-Nigeria Economic Development Council to mention a few. He supports leadership and innovation efforts in Public and private sector organizations through his consulting firm, StratexPro.
Bostjan Skalar is a Slovenian citizen born in Ljubljana, Slovenia and is currently serving as an Executive Director – CEO of World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies. WAIPA is the umbrella organization of worldwide investment promotion agencies established in 1995 in Geneva under auspices of UNCTAD. Previously he served as a Director of new Slovenian Public Agency for Promotion of Investment, Internationalization, Entrepreneurship and Tourism (SPIRIT). He also served as a Consul for Economic Affairs of Slovenia in Istanbul, Turkey. He has also effectively performed his international business activities and managing roles in different sectors in many foreign countries. He has over 20 years of management experience and is one of the global leaders in investment promotion area with a private-sector focus. His vast experiences in different fields from private to public sector give him a global overview on current business and geopolitical trends that influences the flows of FDI.
Three decades of passion for cross-border business and location strategies, over 650 companies served, advisory engagements for more than 150 EDOs/IPAs, visiting university professor on International Business Strategies, called-for speaker on business trends in Central/South Eastern Europe, and still grateful for every new client, each local site visit.
Early 2020 Elias established Locationperspectives, a specialty location strategy consultancy that emphasized delivering practical recommendations and working with clients to implement these. From 2003 through 2019, Elias built-out Deloitte’s Brussels-based site selection practice to Global Location Strategies. He joined Deloitte from Andersen where he led the European Business Location Services team. As Chicago-based Vice-Consul for the Netherlands from 1998 to 2000, he was responsible for the US Midwest operations of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency. Through the 1990s he worked with Price Waterhouse – Plant Location International.
