June 5-7, 2019

CHEONG Koon Hean

CEO, Housing and Development Board

Singapore

Cheong Koon Hean is the CEO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) overseeing the development and management of some 1 million public housing flats in 26 towns/estates. She was also the CEO of the Urban Redevelopment Authority from 2004 to 2010. Cheong is currently on the boards of the HDB, the National University of Singapore and is a council member and former deputy president of the International Federation for Housing and Planning. In addition to being a fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects and the Institute of Planners, Cheong serves on various expert panels and advisory committees including the World Economic Forum’s Real Estate and Urbanisation Global Agenda Council, the National University of Singapore and is the Chairman of the Nominating Committee of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize. She is also the Tan Swan Beng Endowed Professor in Nanyang Technological University. Amongst others, she was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding public service, the University of Newcastle’s 2010 Convocation Medal for professional excellence and the IWF’s 2011 Woman Who Make A Difference Award. In 2016, she became the first Asian to be conferred the JC Nichols Prize for Urban Visionaries by the Urban Land Institute and the Lynn S Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. She was recently appointed as the 2018 SR Nathan Fellow by the Institute of Policy Studies, NUS.

Parag Khanna

Founder and Managing Partner, FutureMap

Singapore

Parag Khanna is founder and managing partner of FutureMap. He has advised many governments and corporations around the world and serves on the boards of numerous financial institutions and technology companies. He has been a fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School, New America Foundation, and Brookings Institution, and worked at the World Economic Forum and Council on Foreign Relations. Khanna is author of several books including Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State (2017), Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization (2016) and co-author of Hybrid Reality: Thriving in the Emerging Human-Technology Civilization (2012). In 2008, Parag was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, and a BA and an MA from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. In 2010 he was recognized as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

David Miliband

President and CEO, International Rescue Committee

New York

David Miliband is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. He oversees the agency’s relief and development operations in over 30 countries, its refugee resettlement and assistance programs throughout the United States and the IRC’s advocacy efforts in Washington and other capitals on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Miliband has had a distinguished political career in the United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2010, he served as the youngest Foreign Secretary in three decades, driving advancements in human rights and representing the United Kingdom throughout the world. Miliband is also the author of the upcoming book, Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time. Miliband was educated at the University of Oxford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ratna Omidvar

Senator for Ontario, The Senate of Canada

Ontario

Ratna Omidvar is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity and inclusion. In April 2016, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Omidvar to the Senate of Canada as an independent senator representing Ontario. As a member of the Senate’s Independent Senators Group she holds a leadership position as the scroll manager. Omidvar is also the deputy chair of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector. Omidvar is the founding executive director at the Global Diversity Exchange (GDX) and a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University.

Omidvar serves as a councillor on the World Refugee Council, a director at the Environics Institute and Samara Canada, and is the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s Chair Emerita. She was formerly the co-chair of the Global Future Council on Migration hosted by the World Economic Forum and the chair of Lifeline Syria.

Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a member of the Order of Canada in 2011, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada. She is the co-author of the book Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015).