Opening Ceremony 2019

Christine Beerli was appointed as the new President of the Council of the Foundation in November 2018. She was the Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). A member of a law firm in Biel, Ms Beerli began her political career on that city's municipal council, where she served from 1980 to 1983. From 1986 to 1991 she was a member of the legislative assembly of the Canton of Bern. In 1991 she was elected to the upper house of the Swiss parliament, where she remained until 2003, chairing the foreign affairs committee (1998-1999) and the committee for social security and health (2000-2001). Ms Beerli chaired the caucus of the Free Democratic Party in Switzerland's federal assembly from 1996 to 2003. She also served on committees dealing with security policy and economic and legal affairs. She retired from politics in 2003. 2006-2017 she headed Swissmedic, the Swiss supervisory authority for therapeutic products. She is former director of the School of Engineering and Information Technology at Bern University of Applied Sciences. In January 2008, Ms Beerli was appointed permanent Vice-President of the ICRC. As such she was a member of the ICRC Assembly – the institution's supreme governing body – as well as the Assembly Council and the Presidency, where she worked closely with the President and deputized for him whenever necessary.

Stéphane Rey assumed his position as Deputy Head of the Human Security Division in November 2017. He leads the geographic and thematic peace policy sections. From 2014 until the end of October 2017, he was Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which has been representing the interests of the United States in Iran since 1981. Stéphane also led the Political Affairs, Peace & Security Team at the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN in New York, where he chaired the Group of Friends of the Protection of Civilians. Prior to that, he was Deputy Head of the Security Council and Political Affairs Unit in the UN Division in Bern. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Stéphane also worked in the field as a delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone) and as a policy officer with the UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in New York. He has completed certificates in humanitarian diplomacy and in modern Middle Eastern languages.

Laurent Wehrli, member of the PLR.Les Libéraux-Radicaux, was elected Municipal Councilor (executive) for the Commune de Montreux in 2001 and became its mayor in 2011. Member of the legislative assembly (Grand Conseil) of the Canton of Vaud from 2002 to 2015, he joined the Swiss National Council in 2015, where he sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He is a former editor-in-chief of a monthly business magazine and he owns a project management company which operates internationally. Born in 1965, he is married and has five children and two grand-children.

Hajer Sharief is the co-founder of the “Together We Build it” NGO in Libya and an Extremely Together Young Leader of the Kofi Annan Foundation. With her organization, Hajer advocates for women’s and youth inclusion in peace in Libya. In 2013, she co-initiated the 1325 Network in Libya, a network of civil society organisations encouraging women to play an active role in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. As part of the Kofi Annan Foundation's Extremely Together initiative, she also helped design the first ever youth-led countering violent extremism toolkit. Hajer was a member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. She is also a UN Women Champion on Women, Peace, Security and Human Rights

Oana Dinea is a concert pianist from Romania, currently based in Geneva where she is teaching at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique de Genève. As a participant in the Caux Peace and Leadership Programme in 2018, she experienced that story sharing, mixing arts and bringing our humanity in a safe space connects us with ourselves. To open herself to the audience and to share her own authentic perspective, she hence initiated the “C L O S E R concert Connection”. “I feel that nothing is more beautiful than the art that we are doing each day in our life. That one that appears in our humanity.”

Nora Abdalaal is a university student and a human rights advocate from Canada who has founded her own registered non profit, called Bridging Borders. Bridging Borders, which is youth run, aims to connect people together and bridge the economic, social, and physical borders between them. They believe that by acting as a facilitator for humanitarian aid between different groups of people, they can take a step in the right direction and achieve incremental change towards a more interconnected and interdependent world. The slogan of the non profit is #HumansForHumans. Nora is very involved in her local community of Ottawa, Canada, and she has been working with refugees, immigrants, and other vulnerable communities for years. Nora aims to have a career in this field that will allow her to influence more change, and to work with diverse groups of people. One of her favourite quotes is " We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone." The motto of Bridging Borders, as well as for how Nora chooses to view the world is that "there is only one criteria to help someone and care for them, and that criterion is that they are a human being." Nora champions bridging the "borders" that separate and divide people in their own communities, and to unite and celebrate one another and the diversity around them.

Mark Amaza works on sustainable and youth development, and media in Nigeria. He works on a campaign to increase energy access through decentralized renewable energy. He is also a founder of an initiative that aims to implement community projects in Borno State that has been ravaged by the Boko Haram insurgency. He is also a freelance writer and has written for and contributed to numerous outlets such as Quartz Africa, African Arguments, The Scoop, and YNaija. He is also a social and political commentator and has been involved in various causes such as helping raise relief materials from persons internally displaced by the Boko Haram conflict and the Not Too Young to Run campaign, designed to increase youth political participation in Nigeria. He is a graduate of Environmental Management from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Nigeria.

Tinotenda Mhungu is a Social and Economic Justice Activist in Zimbabwe. He serves as the National Spokesperson for the Youth Advocacy for Reform and Democracy, a Youth group from Zimbabwe focussed on advocating for better conditions and opportunities for young people and also taking focussed action towards building the bridges between politically polarised communities. He is a member of Initiatives of Change team in Zimbabwe.