Maksym Svysenko is Advisor to the Chairman of the Dnipro Regional State Administration. In this position, he is in charge of cooperation with foreign investors and philanthropic organizations. He is also the Chairman of the Ukrainian Students League Congress. Ukrainian Students League is the largest student organization in Ukraine, which unites 74 universities and 22 youth NGOs. Additionally, he is the coordinator of the national program of personal and professional development of young people StateBuilder. The purpose of the national program StateBuilder is to promote responsible leadership and increase the level of social activism among young people. Hundreds of young people from different regions of Ukraine have graduated from the program and have already created an all-Ukrainian community. From 2020 to 2023, Maksym was a legal associate in the international law firm Kinstellar (former DLA Piper) working mainly in the area of tax consulting for big business. Earlier in his career, he worked as an intern at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. He holds a master’s degree in law from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and taxation from Dnipro University of Technology.

Filiep Decorte is currently the Chief (oic) of UN-Habitat’s Programme Development Branch and acting Emergency Director. 

During his career, Filiep has predominantly focused on urban initiatives in conflict- and crisis-affected countries, specializing in urban planning, land, and housing issues. He globally focuses on migration, displacement, land and conflict and the humanitarian, development and peace nexus. He is Chair of the Global Alliance for Urban Crises. He has worked for UN-Habitat for more than twenty years in different capacities, including long-term assignments in Haiti, the occupied Palestinian territory, Somalia, and Morocco. He also acted as coordinator for UN-Habitat’s Global Disaster Management Program. He was trained as a civil engineer, architect, and urban and regional planner with advanced master’s degrees from the Universities of Ghent and Leuven in Belgium.

Bogdan Zawadewicz is the Head of Geopolitical Risk Analysis at the Polish Development Bank (BGK). He graduated from the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Warsaw. Prior to joining the Bank, he worked at the Center for Eastern Studies (OSW) and at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, where he was a member of the research group "Frozen and Unfrozen Conflicts." Additionally, he participated in scientific and research internships at institutions such as the London School of Economics IDEAS, the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow, the Center for Southeast European Studies in Graz, the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, as well as universities in Niš, Novi Sad, and Bucharest. He was also a scholarship holder of the German BAYHOST. Furthermore, he collaborated as a consultant with the Goethe Institute in Tel Aviv on the project "Negotiations Matter," which focused on the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Anton Antonenko is Vice President and Co-Founder at Ukrainian think tank DiXi Group, focusing on energy policy and energy security issues. Anton graduated from the National University of Kyiv Mohyla academy, majoring in political science and European studies. He worked as analyst, expert and advisor in various projects. Anton was participant of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, being the coordinator of Energy Security subgroup. He was also member of civic councils to the Ministry of energy and coal industry of Ukraine and to the State agency on energy efficiency and energy saving of Ukraine. Anton was also deputy coordinator of EnergyTransparency NGO coalition and member of Energy Reforms NGO coalition.

Andrew Friendly is the vice president of Government Affairs and Public Policy at Autodesk, where he leads a global team advancing policies to support Autodesk’s business. Before entering the world of technology, Friendly spent five years at the White House in a variety of positions, including personal aide to President Bill Clinton and senior advisor to the special envoy for the Americas. He holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.