Brussels Forum Session: The Odesa Debate Part II: The World’s Largest Construction Project: Laying the Foundation at the London Conference

Danae Dholakia is the senior responsible owner (SRO) and United Kingdom Envoy for the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2023. From October 2018 until the end of 2022, she was minister-counsellor, global challenges at the British Embassy in Beijing. While there, she covered engagement with China on energy and climate change, health, science, and technology, research and innovation, and aspects of regulatory diplomacy.  

Prior to that, Dholakia served as special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes Region and was political counsellor in Pretoria. She was also head of the Southern and Central Africa Department at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Before taking up her roles in Africa, Dholakia served for four years as the FCDO deputy director covering Eastern Europe and Central Asia.  

During her 20-year FCDO career, Dholakia has also worked as deputy director on counter-terrorism issues in the Home Office, on NATO, on the EU in Brussels, and on UN issues. Before joining the FCDO, she worked in the NGO sector in Eastern and Central Africa for seven years. 

Dholakia received a bachelor’s degree in environmental science at Lancaster University and a master’s degree in the same field from Brunel University London. 

Brussels Forum Session: The Odesa Debate Part I: The World’s Largest Construction Project—Private-Sector Stakes and Perspectives

Semen Kryvonos has been director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine since March 2023. He previously served for two years as head of the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine and as head of the Office of Simple Solutions and Results, an NGO. In the latter position, he was involved in the development of reforms presented to the Ukrainian president’s National Reform Council. Kryvonos worked as a senior legal adviser at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) before having his own law practice and joining a law firm. From 2015 to 2016, he was first deputy head of the Odesa Customs Service of the Federal Tax Service, where he implemented Open Customs Space, an anti-corruption project aimed at eliminating smuggling. Prior to that, he worked in the Ministry of Justice in the Odesa and Kyiv regions. His first position in government was that of chief specialist of the family and youth unit in the Department for Family, Youth and Sports of the Holosiivska District State Administration of Kyiv. Kyvonos is a graduate of Ukraine’s National University of Bioresources and Nature Management, where he specialized in law, and of the National Agrarian University, where he majored in agronomy. He also holds a master’s degree in public administration from Ukraine’s National Academy of Public Administration.

Brussels Forum Session: The Odesa Debate Part I: The World’s Largest Construction Project: Private-Sector Stakes and Perspectives

Lucy Cronin is vice-president, EU Public Policy, at Amazon. She is a senior public affairs professional with 30 years’ experience, and has worked in a wide range of highly regulated sectors impacted by international, EU, national, and local policy developments. During that time, Cronin has also served as director of a range of businesses, charities, and NGOs, and has delivered guest lectures on political communications at Dublin City University. Cronin has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Trinity College Dublin and a master’s degree in international relations from Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Brussels Forum Session: Opening Dinner: A Shared Cause, A Meal Shared—Voices from the Region

Vitali Klitschko has served as mayor of Kyiv since 2014. Prior to that, he served for two years in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) as a member of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR), a party he has led since 2010. Klitschko is a dedicated social activist who, together with his brother Volodymyr, established the Klitschko Brothers Foundation in 2003.

Klitschko began his political career in 2006, when he ran as head of the "Pora-PRP" bloc for the Kyiv City Council. The election results allowed him to become the bloc's group leader on the council. He was able to double the bloc's council representation in a snap election in 2008, and in 2011 the bloc was renamed “Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR” (udar in Ukrainian means knockout).

Before entering into politics, Klitschko was a professional boxer. He earned a variety of titles, among them European Champion, Inter-Continental World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Association (WBA) champion, and WBO and World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight champion. The WBC named Klitschko the best puncher in the history of heavyweight boxing.

Klitschko holds a PhD in sport and physical education from the Hryhorii Skovoroda Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical University and a master’s degree in social development management from the National Academy of Public Administration.

Brussels Forum Session: Fortifying the Future of Ukraine: Rebuilding Infrastructure for Resilience

Cory Booker has dedicated his life to fighting for those who have been left out, left behind, or left without a voice. Booker grew up in northern New Jersey and received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1997. Booker then moved to Newark and started a nonprofit organization to provide legal services for low-income families, helping tenants take on slumlords.  

At 29, Booker was elected to the Newark City Council. From 2006 to 2013, Booker served as Newark’s mayor. During his tenure, the city entered its greatest period of economic growth since the 1960s. Overall crime declined and residents’ quality of life improved due to initiatives such as more affordable housing, new green spaces, increased educational opportunities, and more efficient city services. In 2013, Booker won a special election to represent New Jersey in the United States Senate. In 2014, Senator Booker was re-elected to a full six-year term.  

As New Jersey’s junior Senator, Booker has emerged as a national leader in the effort to fix our broken criminal justice system and end mass incarceration, helping craft the most sweeping set of criminal justice reforms in a generation, the First Step Act, which became law in December 2018. He has also worked to reform America’s broken food system, address our nation’s nutrition crisis, and end food insecurity. Booker sits on the Judiciary Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee, the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and the Small Business Committee.

Brussels Forum Session: Night Owl: The Future of Russia- Potential Scenarios and Their Implications for International Security

Baiba Braže was appointed assistant secretary general of NATO for ublic diplomacy in May 2020. The Public Diplomacy Division works to raise the Alliance’s profile with audiences worldwide and to build support for Alliance operations and policies. Braže advises the Secretary General on issues within her remit, oversees the coordination of all strategic communications activities across all NATO civilian and military bodies and commands, and also directs all public diplomacy activities (except press and media, which are directed by the NATO Spokesperson on behalf of the Secretary General). 

Braže served most recently as Latvia’s ambassador to the United Kingdom (20162020), prior to which she was director general of security policy and international organizations (20112016) and director general of the Communications Directorate (February 2016-July 2016) at the Latvian Foreign Ministry in Riga. 

Ambassador Braže previously served as Latvia’s ambassador to the Netherlands and permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (20032008), prior to which she was director of the Europe Department and served as foreign policy and national security advisor to the prime minister in Riga.  She has held numerous other posts since joining the Foreign Ministry in August 1993, both at home (Legal Department, International Organizations Department) and abroad (United Nations, New York). 

Braže holds two master’s degrees from the University of Latvia: one in law (1990) and another in communication science (2002). In addition to Latvian, Ambassador Braže is fluent in English and Russian, and speaks Dutch proficiently.