Ban Ki-moon served two consecutive terms as the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 2007 to 2016. His first major initiative as UN Secretary-General was the 2007 Climate Change Summit that culminated in the adoption and rapid entry into force the landmark Paris Climate Change Agreement in 2016. Mr. Ban was also a tenacious advocate for the Millennium Development Goals and their successors, the Sustainable Development Goals. He generated more than $60 billion in pledges, with a special emphasis on Africa and the new Global Strategy on Women’s and Children’s Health. Mr. Ban led successfully for the creation of UN Women, a major new agency that advances global gender equality and women’s empowerment. He also led major efforts to strengthen UN peace operations, protect human rights, improve humanitarian assistance, prevent violent extremism, and revitalize disarmament activities.

Prior to his appointment at the UN, Mr. Ban was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea. His 37-year career as a diplomat included postings in New Delhi, Washington D.C., and Vienna, as well as key responsibilities for a variety of portfolios, including as the Foreign Policy Advisor to the President, the Chief National Security Advisor to the President, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Deputy Minister for Policy Planning, and the Director-General for American Affairs. Mr. Ban contributed significantly to issues relating to inter-Korea relations and WMD proliferation by serving as Vice Chair of the South—North Joint Nuclear Control Commission and Chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization.

Currently, Mr. Ban serves as the Co-Chair of the Board, Global Center on Adaptation since 2018 and Chair of the Boao Forum for Asia since April 2018. Along with the former President of Austria Mr. Heinz Fischer, he serves as Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in Vienna, Austria since 2018 and is the Chairman of Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, Seoul. Mr. Ban is the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee Ethics Commission since September 2017, and he is the Distinguished Chair Professor and Honorary Chairman at the Institute of Global Engagement and Empowerment at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. Mr. Ban also serves as Deputy Chair of The Elders since 2017, an independent group of global leaders established by President Nelson Mandela. Mr. Ban Ki-moon serves as the President of the Assembly and Chair of the Council of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) since 2018.

Dr. Margaret Chan served as Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 2007 to 2017. Dr. Chan’s leadership played a significant role in the elimination of trachoma and other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) throughout her tenure. Dr. Chan served on the frontlines of the global fight against H1N1, SARS and avian influenza and has also been instrumental in championing improvements to maternal care, HIV and AIDs care and malaria. Acclaimed for her strategic direction in the face of public health crises, Dr. Chan served on the frontlines of the global fight against H1N1, SARS and avian influenza. Dr. Chan joined the WHO as Director of the Department for Protection of the Human Environment in 2013 and was appointed Director, Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response as well as Representative of the Director-General for Pandemic Influenza in 2005. In September 2005, she was named Assistant Director-General for Communicable Diseases.

She joined the Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978 and became its director in 1994. In her nine-year tenure as Director of Health of Hong Kong, she launched new services to prevent the spread of disease and promote better health. She also introduced new initiatives to improve communicable disease surveillance and response, enhance training for public health professionals, and establish better local and international collaboration. She effectively managed outbreaks of avian influenza and of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Dr. Chan joined the Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health, a group convened by Michael R. Bloomberg and Lawrence H. Summers to address preventable leading causes of death and noncommunicable diseases through fiscal policy and was appointed to the Council of Advisors of the Boao Forum for Asia in 2018.

Currently, she serves as the inaugural Dean of the Vanke School of Public Health at Tsinghua University since 2020.

Dr. Bindu N. Lohani was Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development until June 2015. Prior to that, Dr. Lohani was Vice-President (Finance and Administration) of ADB. He was The Secretary of the ADB Board, Director General of Regional Sustainable Development and Chief Compliance Officer.

Mr. Lohani’s areas of expertise include sustainable development and climate change, environmental pollution and technology, infrastructure (clean energy, transport, urban and water sectors) development and financing and knowledge management. During his 25 years in ADB, he held several positions, including Director General of RSDD (Regional and Sustainable Development Department), concurrently Chief Compliance Officer, Special Advisor to the President on Clean Energy, Climate Change and Environment, The Secretary of the Bank, and Deputy Director General of Infrastructure Department and Office of Environment and Social Department. Before joining ADB, he worked for the Government of Nepal and was Division Chairman of the Environmental Engineering Program at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok.

Currently, Dr. Lohani is serving as the Global Head of Climate Change Practices and Distinguished Fellow, Emerging Markets Forum of The Centennial Group since 2015. He is the Board of Director and Chair of Clean Air Asia and founding Board member of Asian Water Council. Dr. Lohani also serves as Distinguished Adjunct Faculty and Board member, Asian Institute of Technology and Board of Director of UNESCO International Water Security and Sustainable Development. He serves as Board of Trustees, Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and Senior Advisor, Network Among cities & Private Sector for Asian Smart cities.

Noeleen Heyzer was an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2007 to 2014 and served as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Ms. Heyzer was Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for Timor-Leste to support peacebuilding and sustainable development from 2013 to 2015. From 1994 to 2007, Ms. Heyzer was the first woman to serve as the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and transformed UNIFEM from a small body to a leading entity in women’s empowerment and gender equality and strengthened the capacity of ESCAP to support the countries of the region. She was the first Executive Director outside of North America to lead the United Nations Development Fund for Women. She was widely recognized for the formulation and implementation of the landmark of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security.

Dr. Heyzer was a founding member of several international women’s networks and has served on numerous boards and advisory committees of international organizations, including the UNDP Human Development Report, the High-level Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding chaired by Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen, appointed a jury member of U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Innovation Award for Women’s and Girl’s Empowerment 2010.

Currently, Ms. Heyzer is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the National University of Singapore since 2013 as well as Distinguished Fellow at the Singapore Management University and S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies since 2016.

Dong Chun Shin, M.D, Ph.D is a chair professor of Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Korea and also a director for the National Project of ‘School Particulate Matter Center for Energy & Environment Harmonization’. He graduated from college of medicine, Yonsei University in 1980, was awarded his Ph.D degree in 1989, and worked as visiting scholar in the University of Michigan, School of Public Health from 1991-1993. He has worked as a faculty since 1988, published 164 peer-reviewed articles including 45 SCI listed.

His commitment to environmental health has started from a director of the Institute for Environmental Research, Yonsei University (IERY) since 1999. He had conducted the national environmental health action plan in 2005 (Korean Environmental Health Action Plan-10yrs) and had been co-representative of Korea Environmental Health Forum since 2006. He organized the ISES Asian-Chapter in 2008 and elected as first president of the chapter. He also attracted the ISES (International Society for Exposure Science) / ISEE (International Society for Environmental Epidemiology) 2010 Joint Conference in Korea and has served as chair of organizing committee of the conference. In 2011, he also organized the International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)-Korean Regional Chapter and elected as president. In 2012, SRA World Congress on Risk in Sydney, he organized Asian Regional Seminar on ‘Air Pollution and Risk’. And he has established and managed Korea Society for Green Hospital (KSGH) since 2013. The KSGH is the first academic society which is related to green hospitals in Korea, where the concept of green hospital is not widely known yet although there is growing concern about climate change.

He was nominated to several honorable awards: The Fellow Award at the annual meeting of Society for Risk Analysis in 2016 in San Diego; The Environmental Hero Award at the CleanMed 2017 Conference in Minneapolis; The Order of National Service Merit (Red), Korea in 2020.

Mr. Um is ADB’s Managing Director General. He assumed the position on 22 February 2021.

Mr. Um reports to the ADB President and is responsible for supporting bank-wide coherence on key initiatives and issues. He provides oversight to ADB’s Department of Communications, the Office of Professional Conduct, and the Office of the Ombudsperson.

Mr. Um joined ADB in 1993. He served most recently as Director General and concurrently Chief Compliance Officer of ADB’s Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, leading knowledge management and innovation work in all thematic and sector operational areas. He served as ADB Secretary from 2014 to 2018.

Prior to joining ADB, he worked for Pfizer Inc. in New York and Pitney Bowes Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, United States. Mr. Um holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Computer Science degree from Boston College.