Festival of Ideas

Speakers

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  Robert Bosch Academy/Frauendorf

  Huang Jing

  Huang Jing is Professor and Director of Institute of the U.S. and Pacific Studies at Shanghai International Studies University.

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  Robert Bosch Academy / David Ausserhofer

  Ekaterina Schulmann

  Ekaterina Schulmann is a political scientist specializing in the legislative process in modern Russia, parliamentarism and decision-making mechanisms in hybrid political regimes.

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  Karolina Wigura

  Karolina Wigura is a historian, sociologist and political editor of Kultura Liberalna, Poland’s leading online political and cultural weekly.

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  Bertelsmann Stiftung

  Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook

  Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German-American political scientist and expert on transatlantic relations, technology policy, and diplomacy. She is Executive Vice President at the Bertelsmann Stiftung and formerly served as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations.

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  Cathy Mulligan

  Dr. Cathy Mulligan is an expert in digital technology and digital economy, known for her work in blockchain, telecommunications, and sustainable development.

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  Kumi Naidoo

  Kumi Naidoo is a globally recognized South African human rights and environmental justice activist. He was the first person from the Global South to lead Greenpeace International and later served as Secretary General of Amnesty International. Kumi wants to inspire new forms of activism at a moment in world history when they are urgently needed.

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  David Ausserhofer / Robert Bosch Academy

  Rana Dajani

  Rana Dajani is a molecular biologist, social entrepreneur, and global thought leader. She is the founder of We Love Reading, a grassroots initiative to create changemakers in underserved communities by fostering a lifelong love of reading.

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  Nicholas Lea Bruno

  john a. powell

  john a. powell is a law professor and heads the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California in Berkeley. Born in Detroit, his personal experience of poverty, segregation and poor education made him an advocate for human rights, equality and diversity. He emphasizes the importance of bridging stories to counter the challenge posed to democracies by authoritarian ideology.

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  Natalia Gavrilita

  Natalia Gavrilița is co-founder and director of Partnerships for New Economy, a new economic policy think-tank focused on Moldova's EU integration. She also serves on the Supervisory Board of Moldova's National Bank, the ECFR Board, and the Academic Council of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. As Moldova's 15th Prime Minister (August 2021 - February 2023), Gavrilița led the government through multiple overlapping crises caused by the war in neighbouring Ukraine, while also advancing ambitious anti-corruption, economic, and governance reforms. During her tenure, Moldova managed Europe's largest influx of Ukrainian refugees, diversified its energy market away from Russian gas, and achieved EU candidate status. With extensive experience in development economics and politics, Gavrilița previously served as finance minister (June-November 2019) and as Managing Director at the Global Innovation Fund in London. Her career includes roles in Moldova's Education and Economy ministries and at Oxford Policy Management, with work spanning Africa, Central and South Asia. Gavrilița holds a bachelor's degree in International Law from Moldova State University and a master's in Public Policy from Harvard University. In 2023, she received the Women Political Leaders (WPL) Trailblazer Award.

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  Marija Golubeva

  As a historian, former Latvian Interior Minister, and hybrid warfare expert, Marija Golubeva looks at one of the most urgent questions in Europe: how do open societies defend themselves against Russian sabotage, disinformation, and the deliberate erosion of civic trust?

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  © Senate of Canada / Sénat du Canada

  Ratna Omidvar

  Over decades, The Honourable Ratna Omidvar has built and led organizations at the intersection of civil society, policy and research, all aimed at improving access to education and the labor market for immigrants. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011 and received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2014 in recognition of her work on behalf of immigrants and integration.

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  Harsh Mander

  Harsh Mander is a human rights and peace activist, writer, and lecturer. He is Director of the Centre for Equity Studies in India, a research center focused on social and economic justice. Previously, he worked on the highest level in the Indian Administrative Service in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh for almost two decades. In 2002, he retired in protest against the role of the state in the communal massacre in Gujarat. From 1999 to 2004, he served as Country Director at ActionAid India, a development support organization. From 2005 to 2017, he was special commissioner to the Supreme Court of India in the Right to Food case, and from 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the National Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, mainly on social policy and legislation. He has founded and been a member of many campaigns and initiatives on issues such as homelessness, secularism, peace, reconciliation and legal justice, for example the campaign Aman Biradari and the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information. As a lecturer, he has taught at, among others, the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge University, the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex and at MIT in Boston. Harsh Mander authored several books, including "Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India" (2019), "Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India" (2015), and "Ash in the Belly: India's Unfinished Battle Against Hunger". He has received a number of awards, including the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for peace work, the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2002, and the South Asian Minority Lawyers Harmony Award 2012. Harsh Mander has a PhD from Vrije University in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Last updated: 2021

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  Harsh Mander

  Harsh Mander is a human rights and peace activist, writer, and lecturer. He is Director of the Centre for Equity Studies in India, a research center focused on social and economic justice. Previously, he worked on the highest level in the Indian Administrative Service in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh for almost two decades. In 2002, he retired in protest against the role of the state in the communal massacre in Gujarat. From 1999 to 2004, he served as Country Director at ActionAid India, a development support organization. From 2005 to 2017, he was special commissioner to the Supreme Court of India in the Right to Food case, and from 2010 to 2012, he was a member of the National Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, mainly on social policy and legislation. He has founded and been a member of many campaigns and initiatives on issues such as homelessness, secularism, peace, reconciliation and legal justice, for example the campaign Aman Biradari and the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information. As a lecturer, he has taught at, among others, the Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge University, the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex and at MIT in Boston. Harsh Mander authored several books, including "Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India" (2019), "Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India" (2015), and "Ash in the Belly: India's Unfinished Battle Against Hunger". He has received a number of awards, including the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavana Award for peace work, the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award 2002, and the South Asian Minority Lawyers Harmony Award 2012. Harsh Mander has a PhD from Vrije University in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Last updated: 2021

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  Sub\Urban Photography

  Colleen Thouez

  Colleen Thouez works to give cities a voice in global migration policy and is Vice President of the National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH), where she leads workforce development across America's public universities. Her focus: building education-to-employment programs that advance social progress. Previously, she worked for seventeen years at the top of the United Nations. She has also co-founded a charity bringing Ukrainian children a respite from war.

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  Doug Saunders

  Doug Saunders is an author, journalist and consultant of Canadian and British citizenship. He is the author of the books “Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World” (2011), “The Myth of the Muslim Tide” (2012) and “Maximum Canada” (2017). Furthermore, he is the international-affairs columnist for the Canadian national newspaper The Globe and Mail and writes about the larger themes and intellectual concepts behind international news. He served as the paper’s London-based European bureau chief for a decade, after having run the paper’s Los Angeles bureau, and has written extensively from East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East and North Africa. Saunders won the National Newspaper Award, Canada’s counterpart to the Pulitzer Prize, on five occasions, as well as the Schelling Prize for Architectural Theory, the Donner Prize and the National Library of China Wenjin Book Award. He was a co-designer of the Germany pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, which was based on his book “Arrival City”. Last updated: 2019

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  UK Competition & Markets Authority

  Suma Chakrabarti

  With a career spanning four decades in public service and finance, former EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti has always put empathy at the heart of global development. Today, as a Robert Bosch Academy Fellow (2026), he decodes the exact professional and personal ingredients needed for international policy advice to truly resonate in emerging economies.

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  Robert Muggah

  Robert Muggah ist ein international renommierter kanadischer Politikwissenschaftler, Urbanist und Experte für globale Sicherheit. Sein Wirken konzentriert sich auf die Schnittstellen von Urbanisierung, Cybersicherheit, Klimawandel und Kriminalitätsprävention.

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  Obiageli Ezekwesili

  Obiageli “Oby” Katryn Ezekwesili, who was candidate for the office of the President of Nigeria in the 2019 election, is an economic policy expert and senior economic advisor at the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative (AEDPI) and co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement as well as the #RedCardMovement in Nigeria. Ezekwesili was Vice President of the World Bank's Africa division and is former Nigerian Minister of Education, Minister of Solid Minerals, head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit as well as former chairperson of the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI). She is also founding director of Transparency International. For her work and her social commitment, Ezekwesili was decorated with the national award of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) of Nigeria. In 2016, the University of Essex Business School awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in business in recognition of her role in promoting economic and social justice in African countries. In 2015, she was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the Time-100 Most Influential People and by New York Times as one of the 25 Women of Impact. In 2018, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She holds an MA in International Law and Diplomacy, an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Last updated: 2019

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  Jakkie Cilliers

  Jakkie Cilliers is the chairman of the Board of Trustees and head of African Futures and Innovation program at the Pretoria office of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The ISS is a regional think- and do-tank with offices in Dakar, Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Pretoria, founded by Dr Cilliers in 1991 who served as its executive director until 2015.He is also an Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, Faculty Humanities at the University of Pretoria, and a well-known author and analyst who has presented numerous papers at conferences and seminars and published a number of books on matters relating to peace and security in Africa.Jakkie Cilliers serves on the editorial boards of the African Security Review and the South African Journal of International Affairs. For the last decade his interests relate to issues around South Africa and Africa’s long-term future. His three most recent books take a rigorous look at the continent as a whole.Last update: 2025

• Dr. Shashi Tharoor

  Dr. Shashi Tharoor is an Indian author, politician, and former diplomat.