Paul Collier is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies; a Director of the International Growth Centre (IGC); a CEPR Research Fellow; and Professorial Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford. He was formerly the Senior Advisor to Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa, and was Director of the Development Research group at the World Bank for five years. He researches the causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid; and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies.

Graciela Kaminsky is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University and Research Associate at the NBER. She previously held positions as Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Diego and Staff Economist at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She has been a Visiting Scholar at numerous government organizations and a consultant to international institutions, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the IMF, and the World Bank. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She has published widely in leading academic journals on a variety of topics in Macroeconomics and International Finance, including Financial Globalization, Financial Crises, Contagion, Credibility and Inflation Stabilization Policies.

Alamine Ousmane Mey is Minister of Finance of Cameroon. Minister Mey was appointed in December 2011. Prior to his appointment, he was Director-General of Afriland First Bank, the second-largest bank in Cameroon.

Mr. Mey, who is a specialist in Risk Capital Lending and Leasing Operations, graduated as an Electrical Engineer from the Aachen Polytechnics University (Germany).

Gyan Chandra Acharya is UN Under- Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS). He has three decades of experience in the diplomatic service of Nepal. A strong advocate of the issues affecting LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, Mr. Acharya has stressed that “LDC, LLDC and SIDS issues are livelihood issues of interest and concern to all, and as such they need urgent global attention and support to complement their national efforts”. He calls for a pro-active role of all the stakeholders in galvanizing international support in a spirit of global partnership and solidarity to make best use of the immense potentials that exist in these countries.

Ugo Panizza is Professor of Economics and Pictet Chair at the Graduate Institute, Geneva. He is also the head of the Department of International Economics, the Deputy-Director of the Institute's Centre on Finance and Development, and a CEPR Research Fellow. Prior to joining the Institute, Ugo was the Chief of the Debt and Finance Analysis Unit at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He also worked at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank and was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the American University of Beirut and the University of Turin. His research interests include international finance, sovereign debt, banking, and political economy. He holds a PhD in Economics from The Johns Hopkins University and a Laurea from the University of Turin.