Brussels Forum Session: On the Frontlines of Democracy: Bolstering Trust in Elections Across the Atlantic

Sebastian Bay is a project manager and researcher specializing in election security, national security, hybrid threats, disinformation, and online harms. He is the author of a recent report on countering hybrid threats to elections published by the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. His election expertise comes from his experience managing and leading election protection efforts for the 2018 and 2022 Swedish general elections, focusing on mitigating threats and ensuring electoral security. He has authored several reports on election security for FOI and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. He has also co-authored a chapter titled "A Swedish Perspective on Foreign Election Interference" in Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age (2021), published by Oxford University Press. Bay has worked with the Swedish Election Authority, FOI, NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratComm CoE), the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency, and the Swedish Armed Forces. He holds a bachelor's degree in intelligence analysis and a master's degree in political science from Lund University, Sweden. 

Brussels Forum Session: The Next Generation of Transatlantic Leaders

Samira Rafaela has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Dutch social-liberal D66 party since 2019. She is the first Dutch Afro-Caribbean MEP and was one of the youngest MEPs elected in 2019.  

Rafaela was selected in 2020 as one of Politico Europe’s 20 MEPs to watch for her contributions to making trade greener and fairer. That same year she won one of the Harper’s Bazaar International Women of the Year Awards. 

Brussels Forum Session: The Next Generation of Transatlantic Leaders

George Melashvili is a Georgian public figure, political science scholar, and civic activist. He is the founder and president of the Europe-Georgia Institute, which was a student organization that evolved under his leadership into a leading civil society organization in Georgia. The institute joined the European Liberal Forum, a political foundation affiliated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, and founded the annual Black Sea Security conference focused on international security policy.

Melashvili also established the "Your Voice, Our Future" initiative, which promotes civic engagement, democratic values, and global security in Georgia. The initiative increased youth participation in the 2016 Georgian parliamentary elections.

Melashvili's academic interests are rooted in comparative politics and East Asian studies, with an emphasis on Korea. He was a fellow with GMF's Policy Designers Network and participates in the Warsaw Security Forum’s New Security Leaders program. He is a lecturer on international relations theory and East Asian studies at the Free University of Tbilisi and the University of Georgia. He is also the author of “Korea: Success Story – Lessons for Georgia”, the first book about Korea in the Georgian language.

Brussels Forum Session: Transatlantic Approaches to De-Risking

Alicia García Herrero is the chief economist for the Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis, an independent board member of AGEAS insurance group, a senior fellow at BRUEGEL, and a nonresident senior follow at the National University Singapore’s East Asian Institute. She is also an adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, an adviser to the Spanish government on economic affairs, a Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation board member, a Mercator Institute for China Studies advisory board member, an adviser to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s research arm (HKIMR), and a member of the Council of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

García Herrero previously held the following positions: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria chief economist for emerging markets, a member of the Bank of International Settlements’ Asian research program, head of the Bank of Spain’s international economy division, member of the European Central Bank ‘s counsel to the executive board, head of emerging economies in Banco Santander’s research department, and an economist at the International Monetary Fund. She was also a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, at China-Europe International Business School, and at Carlos III University.

García Herrero holds a PhD in economics from The George Washington University and has published extensively. She appears regularly in international media outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, and CNN, and on social media. She was included in LinkedIn’s 2017 TOP Voices in Economy and Finance and was ranked sixth among Refinitiv’s top social media leaders in 2020.

Brussels Forum Session: NATO at 75: Past, Present, Future – Part II 

Mircea Geoană became NATO deputy secretary general in 2019. He is the first Romanian—and the first from any country that joined the alliance after the end of the Cold War—to hold that position. He previously served as a diplomat and a politician. In 2009, he was his party’s candidate to be president of Romania.  

Geoană studied at Bucharest’s Polytechnic University, the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Law, and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris. He holds a PhD from the Economic Studies Academy of Bucharest. 

Brussels Forum Session: Allied Competitiveness: Can It Be Achieved? National vs. Allied Approaches to Competitiveness

Karan Bhatia leads global public policy at Google through a 450-person team based in more than 50 countries. He is principal adviser to Google’s CEO, board, and senior management on policy issues. He leads the company’s work with policymakers and key political stakeholders worldwide.

Before joining Google in 2018, Bhatia served as president of General Electric government affairs and policy. During his 10 years at that firm, he helped drive its expansion into government-facing global markets. He supported more than $40 billion in government-related industrial orders, secured international regulatory approvals for critical mergers and acquisitions, and led policy advocacy efforts on issues ranging from climate change to international trade.

Earlier in his career, Bhatia served in senior positions in the US government, including at the Commerce and Transportation departments, shaping international economic policy. In his last role as deputy US trade representative, he oversaw trade policy with Asia and Africa. Prior to his government service, he was a partner in the Washington, DC law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where he was a member of the international and corporate groups.

Bhatia has written and spoken widely on international economic policy, taught at Georgetown University Law Center, and testified on many occasions before Congress. He sits on the boards of the Urban Institute, the US Global Leadership Coalition, and the Partnership for Public Service.

Bhatia holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Columbia University. 

Brussels Forum Session: Security South: Transatlantic Strategy in a Time of Crisis

Ana Santos Pinto is assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies and assistant vice-dean of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at NOVA University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH). She is also executive director of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA), a member of the board of trustees of the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD), and a member of the advisory council of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The NATO secretary general nominated her in 2023 to chair a group of independent experts delivering a report on the alliance's approach to its southern neighborhood.

Santos Pinto was Portugal’s secretary of state for national defense from 2018 to 2019. Before that, she worked as an associate researcher at Portugal’s National Defense Institute; a research consultant for the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations Project; an adviser for the international relations minister of national defense of Portugal’s 17th constitutional government; and a research assistant at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.  

Santos Pinto’s main areas of research are identities in international politics, EU foreign and security policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. She holds a PhD in international relations from NOVA FSCH, a master’s degree in history of international relations from the Higher Institute of Labor and Business Sciences (ISCTE-IUL), and a degree in political science and international relations from NOVA FSCH.

Brussels Forum Session: Democracy on the Line: A View From the United States

Michael R. Pence served as the vice president of the United States between 2017 and 2021. He is now a distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and the Ronald Reagan presidential scholar at Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization.

Pence served as governor of the US state of Indiana from 2013 to 2017. While in office, he increased school funding, expanded school choice, created the first state-funded pre-kindergarten plan, and prioritized career and technical education in high school. He also enacted the largest income tax cut in Indiana’s history and invested in roads and schools while producing balanced budgets that left the state with strong reserves and AAA credit ratings. The state’s unemployment rate fell by half during his term.

Starting in 2001, Pence represented east-central Indiana for 12 years in the US House of Representatives, where he championed limited government, fiscal responsibility, economic development, and educational opportunity. His Republican colleagues unanimously elected him to serve as House Republican Study Committee chairman and House Republican Conference chairman.

Before going to Congress, Pence practiced law, led the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, and hosted The Mike Pence Show, a syndicated talk radio show and a weekly television public affairs program in Indiana.  

Pence attended Indiana University School of Law and holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Hanover College.

Brussels Forum Session: Allied Competitiveness: Can It Be Achieved? National vs. Allied Approaches to Competitiveness

Eva Maydell is a member of the European Parliament and serves as a lead negotiator on both the Chips Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Her policy priorities include innovation and the use of new technologies to support European competitiveness and fostering cooperation among likeminded global partners in the tech and democracy space.

Maydell has also worked on the updated EU Network Information Security Directive, as well as on the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act.

In the European Parliament, Maydell is vice-chair of the Delegation for Relations with Japan and a member of the Delegation for Relations with the United States.

Maydell was the first woman and first Eastern European to serve as president of the European Movement International, the largest organization of associations and civil societies in Europe. She is a board member for World Economic Forum’s Digital Europe program and a member of the WEF Global Future Council of Europe.

Eva has twice been awarded the European Parliament's MEP of the Year Award. She has also been included in FT's own “New Europe 100” ranking of Central and Eastern Europe's emerging change-makers, European Forbes' “30 Under 30” list, and others. She has been featured in POLITICO’s list of 40 most influential MEPs,the “POLITICO 28” list of people who are shaping Europe, and POLITICO’s 2018 “Women Who Shape Brussels”.

Brussels Forum Session: The Next Generation of Transatlantic Leaders

Tara Hariharan is managing director of Global Macro Research and head of macro research at NWI Management LP, a New York-based emerging markets-focused hedge fund. She leads top-down analysis of economic activity, policy, and macro-political issues for countries globally, and created NWI’s proprietary “macro dashboard” to identify strategic investment opportunities in fixed income, foreign exchange, equities, and commodities. She regularly presents her assessments of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economy and US-China relations to senior US policymakers and International Monetary Fund representatives. She is featured on CNBC and Bloomberg Television.  

Hariharan is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Millennium Leadership fellow at the Atlantic Council. She was a 2014 German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial fellow, a 2016 American Council on Germany (ACG) young leader, and a 2022 Economic Club of New York fellow. She was elected in 2022 to ACG’s board. She is also a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Chief Economists’ Committee. Elected to the Inter-American Dialogue in 2021, she regularly contributes to its publications on trade flows and the PRC’s influence on Latin America.  

Hariharan holds a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in anthropology from Princeton University and a graduate certificate in international relations from Harvard Extension School.