Tim Congdon is a professor of economy at the University of Buckingham. He is one of the world's leading monetary analysts. He advised the UK's 1979 -97 Conservative government on economic policy, serving as a member of the Treasury Panel (the so-called 'wise men', or 'wise persons' when a lady had been appointed) from 1992 to 1997. He is usually regarded as the UK's leading exponent of the 'monetarist' school of thought, and was influential in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the defence of 'Thatcherite monetarism'.

After starting his career as a journalist on The Times, he became an economist in the City of London in 1976. In 1989 after correctly warning that the excessive money growth during the Lawson Chancellorship would lead to double-digit inflation.

Tim's long-term project is a book (or probably a series of three related books) on Money in a Modern Economy, which is to bring together his views on how an economy with a central bank and commercial banking system works. His publications include:

• Money in a Free Society
• Central Banking in a Free Society
• Keynes, the Keynesians and Monetarism
• Money and Asset Prices in Boom and Bust
• The growth prospects of City industries
• Reflections on Monetarism
• The Debt Threat
• Monetary Control in Britain

Tim contributed widely to the financial press, and makes occasional radio and television appearances. He was Economics Spokesman for the UK Independence Party from 2010 to 2014.

Dato' Sri Idris Jala is the President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of PEMANDU Associates. Previously, he was the CEO of PEMANDU, a unit in the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia, the organisation tasked with spearheading Malaysia's transition towards high income status by 2020. He also served as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia for 6 years, and later as the Advisor to the Prime Minister on the National Transformation Programme.

He is a renowned transformation guru in turning around companies' performance through his big fast results methodology and transformational strategies that are innovative, rigorous and relevant to today's demands. He has continuously delivered sustainable socio economic reforms which, in 2014, saw Bloomberg place him among the top 10 most influential policy makers in the world.

Dato' Sri Idris Jala is also the Founder and Executive Chairman of The Global Transformation Forum (GTF), the world's singular platform for influential, global leaders to engage and share experiences and best practices on how to drive transformation.

In addition, Dato' Sri Idris Jala is an Expert Resource Speaker at the Harvard Health Leaders' Ministerial Forum and a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Oxford Blavatnik School of Government. He also served on the Advisory panel for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on New Economic Growth and also on the Advisory Panel of World Bank.

Prior to his Government stint, Dato' Sri Idris Jala was Managing Director/CEO at Malaysia Airlines (MAS) for 3 years. He was brought on board to turn around the airline which was in crisis brought about by a prolonged bout of losses from operational inefficiencies.

Before MAS, he spent 23 years at Shell, rising up the ranks to hold senior positions including Vice President, Shell Retail International and Vice President Business Development Consultancy, based in UK. This included successful business turnarounds in Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

His directorship in other public companies are Heineken Malaysia Berhad, and Sunway Berhad and Jeffrey Cheah Foundation.

Sir Michael Barber is a world-leading authority on the effectiveness of government. He is the Founder and Chairman of Delivery Associates.

In March 2015 his latest book How to Run a Government so that Citizens Benefit and Taxpayers Don’t go Crazy was published by Penguin to wide acclaim.

In 2001, he founded the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit in No10, Downing Street, which he ran until 2005. In this role he was responsible for ensuring delivery of the government's domestic policy priorities across health, education, crime reduction, criminal justice, transport and immigration. The sustained focus on delivery from the heart of government, and the processes the PMDU developed, were a significant innovation in government, of interest to numerous other countries and global institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.

From 2005 to 2011 he was a partner at McKinsey and Company. From 2011 to 2017 he was Chief Education Advisor at Pearson.

In April 2017 he became the first Chair of the new Office for Students which regulates the higher education sector in England.

Since 2009, on behalf of the British Government, he has visited Pakistan more than 50 times to drive delivery of improved outcomes in the education and health systems of Punjab.

With his leadership, Delivery Associates has worked with government leaders in the developing and developed world to enable them to deliver their domestic policy priorities. These include the governments of Ethiopia, Canada, New South Wales in Australia and Western Cape in South Africa.

In 2017 he was commissioned by Her Majesty’s Treasury to review efficiency and public value. His report “Delivering better outcomes for citizens: practical steps for unlocking public value” was published with the budget in 2017.

He is a distinguished visiting scholar at Harvard School of Public Health and holds honorary doctorates from The University of Exeter, The University of Wales and The University of Warwick. In 2005, he was knighted for his services to improving government.

Ms Palojärvi holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business
Management from Helsinki School of Management and Business Administration

Ms Jaana Palojärvi acts as the Director for International Relations at the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland, where she has worked since 1996 in various positions. Previously, she has worked as Secretary General of Finnish UN Association, and in the early 1990s as Consultant and Regional Manager in the private sector, focusing in education projects both in Africa and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Mr. Lam Wee Shann holds a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Honours) from University College London, in 1997. He also got his Master’s degree in Telecommunications from the same university, in 1998.

Mr. Lam Wee Shann joined Land Transport Authority in Feb 2017 to lead a newly formed Technology & Industry Development group. The group is responsible for overall coordination of technology efforts as well as to develop land transport industry. Before being appointed to his present post, he set up the Futures Division in Ministry of Transport in Oct 2013. Futures division generates foresight to shape the future of transport for Singapore, which include strategy formulation and the translation of foresight research into actionable policy insights. He had also served as the Director (Communications and Community Engagement) in the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore from 2009, where he was in charge of media relations, community engagement and organisation of key events such as the Singapore Maritime Week.

Within her responsibilities at the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and The Future, H.E. Maryam Al Hammadi prepares, develops and follows up on the UAE Vision 2021 and National Agenda. She supervises the implementation of federal entities' strategies by developing the UAE government performance management system and establishing a clear and smart performance framework, in a bid to achieve the UAE Vision 2021 and National Agenda, and assess the government entities' strategies and the performance of the top government initiatives.

H.E. further monitors the government service performance and the latest developments related to government innovation through establishing KPIs and performance reports that reflect the achievements made in these fields. She also supervises the studies pertaining to government human resources, notably the studies on happiness and positivity in the workplace; as well as loyalty, employee engagement and functional harmony, among others.

H.E. Maryam Al Hammadi also manages the development and implementation of an effective analytical reporting system for assessing progress in achieving the UAE vision, as well as the strategies and services provided by government entities, using smart, innovative analytical systems, tools, techniques and solutions, thus providing adequate and timely information for decision makers at various levels

H.E. Al Hammadi is responsible for preparing and developing an overarching government excellence system nationwide, to be used as an integrated tool for maintaining development and promoting government excellence. H.E also follows up on the implementation and outreach of the said system both in the UAE and worldwide

Among her various positions, H.E. serves as the General Coordinator of the Sheikh Khalifa Government Excellence Program (SKGEP), whereby she manages all the award categories under the umbrella of Mohammed bin Rashid Government Excellence Award.

For over 25 years, H.E Maryam Al Hammadi has held numerous positions in both the public and private sectors in areas pertaining to government development, strategic planning, performance management, government excellence, services and operations management. She was also in charge of developing the organizational structures at Dubai Municipality and Emirates Global Aluminum Company (EGA). H.E. Al Hammadi holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a Master’s degree in Total Quality Management (TQM). She is a member of the Emirates Strategic planning Association (ESPA) and a board member of Dubai Sports Council.

Between his two periods of political and public service, Francis Maude was Global Head of Privatisation at Morgan Stanley. In his early ministerial career, he served as Margaret Thatcher’s Minister for Europe and Hong Kong/China, Minister for Corporate Affairs, and Financial Secretary to the Treasury until he left Parliament in 1992. After re-election in 1997, he served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Success in the 2010 election saw Francis appointed Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. Under his leadership, the British Government became the world leader for digital government, creating the Government Digital Service (GDS) now replicated by governments across the globe. He drove the government’s cost-cutting programme structural and cultural reforms to the Civil Service, reforming the commercial function of government, renegotiating contracts, and cutting costs. This programme delivered over £50 billion of savings.

Francis also led the Government’s programmes on open data and transparency, cybersecurity, and social investment. He guided the UK to be the top-ranked country for open government; chaired the newly-formed Open Government Partnership (OGP), now joined by over seventy governments, and created a “modern privatisation” programme, spinning out over 100 public services into staff-led private and social enterprises. He was also responsible for the creation of the world’s first social investment bank, Big Society Capital. In his most recent job in government, as Trade Minister, he led international trade negotiations and initiated substantial reform of Britain’s export promotion agency.

Francis now heads FMA, working with governments to help them with public sector and efficiency reforms. He is also a Senior Advisor at Covington and Burling, the Washington law firm.

Prof. Muhammad Khurram Khan received a BS in Computer Science from Bahria University, Pakistan in 2001; a MS in Computer Science from Bahria University, Pakistan in 2002; and a Ph. D. in Engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University, China in 2007.

Prof. Khan is currently working at the Center of Excellence in Information Assurance (CoEIA), King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He is the founder and CEO of the ‘Global Foundation for Cyber Studies and Research’, Washington DC. Prof. Khan is the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Telecommunication Systems’ published by Springer. In addition, he is on the editorial board of several journals/transactions/magazines, some of which published by IEEE, IET, Elsevier, Springer and Wiley. Moreover, he is one of the organizing chairs and a program committee member of a large number of international conferences. Prof. Khan published over 350 papers in reputable journals and conference proceedings. Besides that, he is an inventor of 10 US/PCT patents. Prof. Khan’s research areas of interest are Cybersecurity, digital authentication, IoT security, multimedia security, and technological innovation management. Prof. Khan is a fellow of a number of professional organizations including IET (UK), BCS (UK) and FTRA (Korea); a senior member of the IEEE; a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Security & Privacy, and a member of the IEEE Cybersecurity Community.