GWX26 Speakers & Moderators

Aditi Banerjee

Co-Founder and CEO

Magic Billion

Aditi Banerjee co-founded Magic Billion in 2018 and IndiaWorks GmbH in 2024 to build transparent, structured pathways for Indian talent into international labour markets, primarily in OECD countries. An economist by training, she spent fifteen years prior to her entrepreneurial journey in the development sector — at the World Bank, Boston Consulting Group and the British Asian Trust, patroned by HRH King Charles — focused on development finance and systemic public sector programs in education, climate and health. She is a finalist at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards (UK, 2019) and a recipient of the Indian Achievers' Award (2023).

Annemiek Dresen

Founder

NewBees

Annemiek Dresen is the Founder of NewBees, a Netherlands-based social enterprise supporting newcomers to enter the workforce and employers in building more inclusive workplaces. Prior to founding NewBees, Annemiek co-founded Guatemala-based NGO Niños de Guatemala, after which she worked in global finance roles at ABN AMRO. Since founding NewBees in 2016, she has helped over 6,000 newcomers and worked with 100+ European companies, earning recognition in 2022 as one of the Netherlands' 30 most inclusive leaders.

Borja Monreal Gainza

Public Policy Director

Prime Minister's Office (Spain)

Borja Monreal is Director of Public Policy at the Spanish Prime Minister's Office, where he works on the design and coordination of public policies across government. His main areas of expertise are migration, international development and poverty. He previously co-founded and led SIC4Change, a social innovation organisation using technology to address social challenges and expand economic opportunities. Over the course of his career, he has worked with UN agencies including FAO, ILO and UNDP across Africa and Latin America, with experience in countries such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Malawi and Kenya.

Brian Gannon

VP of Strategic Partnerships and Government Relations

LaborMex

Brian Gannon is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Government Relations at LaborMex, where he works in global labor mobility, government policy, ethical recruitment, and workforce technology. He has more than 25 years of experience developing and managing international workforce programs, and has helped facilitate legal employment opportunities in the United States for tens of thousands of international workers, engaging extensively with employers, governments, policymakers, and global recruitment partners on responsible labor-mobility pathways. Brian is also the founder and president of the Ukraine America Initiative, a US-based nonprofit supporting Ukrainians displaced by the war.

Catharina Franz

Team Lead, International Partnership Management

Lingoda

Catharina Franz has 11 years of experience in international contexts, specializing in international recruitment, consulting, and educational initiatives for skilled labor migration. She is currently Team Lead for International Partnership Management at Lingoda GmbH, where she guides and advises international stakeholders involved in recruiting foreign skilled professionals and apprentices, and drives business development by establishing new strategic fields such as direct language education partnerships in source countries. Catharina holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a focus on Controlling and Finance. Prior to her current role, she was with WBS Training, where she helped build up WBS International Recruiting and managed the EU-funded project "MobiPro," which aimed at reducing youth unemployment across Europe.

Chad Sterbenz

Chief Investment Officer

Malengo

Chad Sterbenz is Chief Investment Officer at Malengo. He brings more than 20 years of experience in impact investing, financial inclusion, organizational leadership, and international development, including serving as Chief Investment Officer at Kiva.org and launching or managing impact investment funds for SEAF in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Peru. He began his international development career as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching social sciences at a university in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

Chris Maclay

Program Director, Jobtech Alliance

Mercy Corps

Chris's passion lies at the intersection of employment, technology, and start-ups. He is currently Mercy Corps' Program Director at the Jobtech Alliance, an ecosystem-building initiative bringing together start-ups, support organizations, and investors working on the future of work and the platform economy. He has spent over 15 years working in the youth employment and economic development space across Africa and beyond, working with NGOs, donors, and the private sector. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer at Lynk, the Kenyan gig matching platform for informal workers.

Daniel Yu

Founding Partner

Africa Jobs Fund (AJF)

Daniel Yu is the Founding Partner of Africa Jobs Fund, a philanthropic investment fund backing startups in international labor mobility and export manufacturing to maximally increase African worker incomes. Previously, Daniel founded and led Wasoko, an e-commerce platform supplying goods and financing to over 200,000 informal retail stores across Africa, recognized as the fastest growing company in Africa by the Financial Times in 2022 before completing Africa's largest ever tech merger with Egypt-based MaxAB in 2024. He currently serves as board chair of Malengo. Originally trained as a software developer, Daniel has worked in or traveled to over 75 countries and speaks Mandarin, Swahili, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, and French.

Diana Akatwijuka

Founder / CEO

TokyoLingo

Diana Akatwijuka is CEO and Founder of Tokyo Lingo, an education and talent mobility organization building pathways between Africa and Japan. A Kenyan by birth and a naturalized Japanese citizen, she brings a unique perspective shaped by more than 15 years of living, studying, and working in Japan, connecting African talent with educational and professional opportunities while helping candidates and Japanese organizations navigate the cultural, linguistic, and practical aspects of international mobility. Through Tokyo Lingo, she works closely with Japanese language schools, companies, and institutions to create structured pathways for international students and professionals from Kenya and other African countries, supporting candidates through language and JLPT preparation, employer connections, visa processes, and relocation. She founded Tokyo Lingo in 2021 and is particularly passionate about developing Kenya–Japan talent mobility in a way that goes beyond recruitment.

Ed Shapiro

Managing Trustee

The Shapiro Foundation

Edward Shapiro is the Managing Trustee of The Shapiro Foundation, which he founded with his wife Barbara in 2000. From 1997 to 2016 he was a Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at PAR Capital Management, a Boston-based investment management firm, after which he retired to focus on his family's charitable foundation and philanthropic activities, with an emphasis on refugee relief and resettlement/sponsorship. He previously held roles at Wellington Management Company, Morgan Stanley, and Kayne Anderson Investment Management. Ed has served on the board of United Airlines since 2016 and chairs its Finance Committee, and is board chair of The Welcoming Initiative for Newcomers (WIN) and The Community Sponsorship Hub. He earned his BS in Economics from Wharton and an MBA from UCLA Anderson.

Handirk von Ungern-Sternberg

Founder / CEO

IndiaWorks GmbH

Handirk von Ungern-Sternberg holds a doctorate in economics from the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and the University of Tübingen and has extensive experience in the public sector. As a manager in a chamber of commerce, he has promoted the recruitment of skilled workers in the skilled trades sector through recruitment programs for trainees from India. Handirk was also responsible for recognition procedures for academic achievements and foreign qualifications in various public institutions.

Helen Dempster

Policy Fellow and Co-Director, Migration and Displacement

Center for Global Development (CGD)

Helen Dempster is a programme co-director and policy fellow for the Migration and Displacement Program at the Center for Global Development. She has two key focuses: building partnerships which link training and mobility to support economic development in countries of migrant origin; and facilitating the economic inclusion of refugees in hosting countries. Prior to joining CGD, she worked for five years in research communications at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and the International Growth Centre (IGC). Dempster holds a MicroMasters in Data, Economics and Development Policy from MIT, a master's in Africa and International Development from the University of Edinburgh, and undergraduate degrees in Law, Public Policy and International Relations from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Hrishabh Sandilya

Co-Director

EPIM (European Philanthropic Initiative for Migration)

Hrishabh Sandilya is Co-Director of EPIM, the European Philanthropic Initiative for Migration, and Co-Founder of ReImagined Futures, a collective systems change consultancy. He previously founded and led Project Phoenix in Cyprus, working on refugee inclusion and entrepreneurship. His career spans leadership roles in European philanthropy, international non-profits, migration governance, and climate and systems-change consulting. He sits on the Advisory Board of CarbonSpace and the Democracy and Belonging Forum at the Othering and Belonging Institute, holds master's degrees in strategic leadership and sustainability, and in peace and conflict studies, along with a PhD in geopolitics, and is a Marshall Memorial Fellow, Salzburg Global Fellow, BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, and Aspen Environment Fellow.

Joe Martinez

Executive Director, Co-Founder

CIERTO

Joe Martinez is the Executive Director, Co-Founder of CIERTO, a non-profit international recruitment and training organization that provides migrant workers to employers in the United States, Canada and Spain from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. This model offers a safe recruitment and labor compliance verification/assurance system that protects workers from fraud, trafficking, and forced labor conditions, while protecting employers from bad recruitment practices. Joe has worked closely with NGOs, the US and foreign governments to address issues related to how migrant workers are recruited and dispatched in North America.

Lant Pritchett

Co-Founder & Research Director

Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP)

Lant is a world-renowned development economist who has spent the last 30 years applying economic principles to complex problems of systems change. Lant worked with the World Bank from 1988 to 2007 and taught at the Harvard Kennedy School from 2000 to 2018, where he was the Faculty Chair of the MPA/ID Degree program. He has published over a hundred books, journal articles and working papers, with over 50,000 citations on development topics from education to economic growth to labor mobility. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1983 with a B.S. in Economics and from MIT in 1988 with a PhD in Economics.

Lara Dyer

Chief Solutions Officer (Americas)

Talent Beyond Boundaries

Lara Dyer is Chief Solutions Officer (Americas) at Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), the first global organization to focus on refugee labour mobility. In her role, she leads TBB's strategy to expand labour mobility to, from, and within the Americas. Lara brings deep expertise in talent acquisition, global mobility, and workforce inclusion. Prior to joining TBB, Lara served as an executive in the Government of Canada, where she spearheaded innovative national immigration programs, including the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP) and the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP).

Liz Warn

Head of Labour Mobility

IOM (International Organization for Migration)

Liz Warn is Head of the Labour Mobility Unit at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva. She leads IOM's global work on labour mobility, supporting governments and partners to develop safe, regular and sustainable pathways that respond to labour market needs while protecting migrant workers. With 25 years of international experience, Liz has worked across policy, programmes and operations in Africa, Europe and Latin America. Her current work includes innovative and principled financing for labour mobility.

Maria Vincenza Desiderio

Senior International Mobility Consultant

TruMerit

Maria Vincenza Desiderio is a Senior Expert on Migration, Integration, and Qualification Recognition Policies with about twenty years' experience in comparative research on labour migration systems, labour market integration of migrants and refugees, and recognition of foreign qualifications. She worked for thirteen years as a Senior Migration Policy Analyst at the OECD, the Migration Policy Institute, and the International Organization for Migration, and is currently Senior International Mobility Expert at TruMerit and a Senior Advisor for ETF and IOM Romania. She is the author of over thirty flagship publications on migration, integration and qualification recognition, and has advised government administrations, European institutions and international organisations throughout her career.

Marvin Kiragu

Founder & CEO

Luka

Marvin is a visionary executive with 15 years of cross-functional leadership, expertly bridging early-stage venture building with institutional-grade global finance. Deeply passionate about entrepreneurship and job creation, Marvin is a multiple-time founder and venture builder who has successfully launched and scaled impactful ventures. He currently leads a fintech enterprise dedicated to expanding accessible financial services for blue-collar African migrant workers across the world.

Nick Markham

Investment and Venture Lead, Jobtech Alliance

BFA Global

Nick Markham is the Investment and Venture Lead for the Jobtech Alliance at BFA Global, with more than 15 years of experience working across venture building, corporate innovation, startup strategy, and emerging technologies. Based in Nairobi, he works with founders, investors, and ecosystem partners to help early and growth-stage ventures scale through stronger business models, market expansion, and strategic execution. His recent work has focused on the intersection of AI, entrepreneurship, and the future of work, as well as advising startups on growth, innovation, and commercial strategy.

Rebekah Smith

Executive Director

Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP)

Rebekah Smith is LaMP's co-founder and executive director, based in Washington DC. An economist and policy entrepreneur, Rebekah has spent nearly a decade leading efforts to expand the scope and quality of migration pathways. Since co-founding LaMP in 2020, she has forged new agreements with governments and industry actors to promote labor mobility, stewarding LaMP's growth from a working group based at a think tank into a fully-fledged organization with over $10 million committed from external funders and concrete proof-of-concept opportunities on the ground. Before LaMP, Rebekah was a Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where she pioneered a new approach of plurilateral partnerships between national governments and industries to unlock labor mobility, and previously worked at the World Bank, where she designed the Bank's first-ever operation intended to facilitate cross-border mobility. She is now a Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow, and holds a master's in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor's in economics and international studies from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Sarah Lince

Program Director

Verité

Sarah is a seasoned human and labor rights practitioner with more than 15 years of experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder projects across the Americas, Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Her work focuses on strengthening the capacity of companies, civil society organizations, and governments to advance human rights and labor standards in global supply chains, including supporting both private- and public-sector clients in strengthening human rights due diligence systems, promoting fair working conditions, and developing innovative approaches to reduce risks of forced labor, human trafficking, and debt bondage. Sarah holds an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

Serena Hoy

Special Envoy for Regular Migration Pathways

IOM (International Organization for Migration)

Serena Hoy is the Special Envoy for Regular Migration Pathways at the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Previously, she served as Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she was the Secretary's principal advisor on international relations and led the Department's engagement with national authorities globally, including on border security and regional migration cooperation. She has also worked in the Office of Legal Affairs at INTERPOL Headquarters in Lyon, as a Senior Counselor on migration to the Deputy and Secretary of Homeland Security during the Obama Administration, and as Chief Counsel to former U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. She clerked for Judge Merrick Garland after earning her law degree from Yale, and holds a master's from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Sharmi Surianarain

Chief Impact Officer

Harambee

Sharmi Surianarain is a systems shaper, opportunity architect, and storyteller working to expand access to opportunity and creative potential across Africa. As Chief Impact Officer at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, she leads the organisation's impact, research and pathway intelligence agenda, with work spanning South Africa and Rwanda, where she also chairs the Rwanda Global Business Services Growth Initiative advisory board. Over the past two decades, Sharmi has worked across education, employment, leadership development and human capital systems in Africa, India and the United States, and is the founder of Making Caring Count, an initiative focused on elevating care as essential social and economic infrastructure. She is an Aspen African Leadership Initiative Fellow and moderator within the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Sophie van Haasen

Independent Advisor | Migration, Cities & International Policy

Independent Consultant

Sophie is a migrant rights advocate with over 15 years of experience building partnerships across civil society, cities, the UN and Member States. She works to shift migration narratives and influence policy through dialogue, and has led coalitions such as the Local Coalition for Migrants and Refugees, the Civil Society Action Committee, and the GFMD Working Group on Migration Narratives. She led the civil society collective advocacy strategy during the UN Migration Compact negotiations, and sat on the boards of EVAM Ecuador and the Must-a-Lab Project. She is currently exploring how migration governance and new democratic tools can intersect, and has worked in Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador and the United States.

Steffen Kaupp

Head of Teaching

Lingoda

Steffen Kaupp has nearly a decade of experience in international language education and skilled labor migration, having held positions in academia, the non-profit sector, and the private sector across the United States and Vietnam; he is now based in Germany. He is currently Head of Teaching at Lingoda, responsible for the overall planning and management of teachers and medical educators across Lingoda's B2C and B2B businesses. Steffen holds a PhD in German Studies from the joint graduate program at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, and has co-authored the German language textbook "Impuls Deutsch." Prior to Lingoda, he was Head of the Language Department at Goethe-Institut Hanoi, and before that taught German as a Foreign Language at the University of Notre Dame.

Upasana Khadka

Chief Advisor

Ministry of Youth, Labor and Employment

Upasana Khadka heads Migration Lab, a social enterprise aimed at making migration outcomes better and helping the most marginalized communities access ethical recruitment opportunities, including through the popular Diaspora Diaries series with Nepali Times. She formerly served as a Migration Expert/Policy Advisor at Nepal's Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, was involved in labor agreements with Japan and the UAE, and authored the Nepal Labor Migration Report 2020. As a columnist for the Nepali Times ("Labour Mobility"), she analyzes trends affecting Nepal's workers abroad, and has worked on migration issues with the World Bank and Human Rights Watch across Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, the Gulf states and South Korea. She holds an MPA/ID from Harvard Kennedy School and a degree in Economics and Mathematics from Reed College.