He is a lawyer by training, a former practicing barrister and Assistant Professor of International Law. He has worked and written on Political Systems and provided legal counseling in Constitutional and Administrative Law. Mr. Martínez-Solimán has been working for the UN for 20 years, focusing on electoral assistance, public financial management, democratic transitions and national dialogue. Prior to his appointment as the Assistant Secretary-General of the UNDP, he was the Deputy Director, Bureau for Development Policy, UNDP. In this different capacities at the UNDP, he was posted in Burundi, Togo, Bangladesh and Senegal. He was UNDP’s Senior Governance Adviser for the 18 West African countries from 2000 to 2003, and until 2006, he was the Practice Manager of UNDP’s Democratic Governance Team at Headquarters. He is UNDP's senior focal point for the 2030 Agenda and the Co-Chair of the UN Development Group's SDG Task Force.

Mr. Martinez-Soliman holds a degree in law (Juris Doctor) from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and the Universidad of Malaga, and has been a Member of the Bar since 1985.

Mr. Nik Sekhran is the Director for Sustainable Development at UNDP, working within the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support. He oversees work to connect the economic, social and environmental dimensions on sustainable development. Over the past 22 years, Mr. Sekhran has dedicated his career to spearheading sustainable development, working on-the-ground in over 40 countries across the world. His particular experience in development and environment management has included the provision of policy advice and programme support to governments. He also has a strong track record in the governance arena, working to improve transparency in decision making, accountability and institutional effectiveness in public administrations. Mr. Sekhran holds degrees in Economics from the Universities of Bath and Cambridge in England. Prior to taking up his present post in 2014, Mr. Sekhran was Head of the USD 1.6 billion UNDP Ecosystems and Biodiversity Programme.

As Policy Specialist for Foundations at UNDP, Karolina develops partnerships with philanthropic organizations to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offers strategic guidance to UNDP and UN teams worldwide to enable them to enter productive collaborations with philanthropy. Karolina is also a global team leader for SDG Philanthropy Platform, a partnership initiative between UNDP, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers and Foundation Centre which facilitates collaborations between philanthropy, the UN and governments to achieve the SDGs in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Colombia and Brazil. Previously Karolina worked in UNDP HQ in New York and in UNDP regional office in Eastern Europe and the CIS, responsible for brokering partnerships between UNDP country offices and businesses.

Björn Gillsäter is the Manager and Special Representative to the United Nations of World Bank Group and has more than 20 years’ experience in global affairs, international public finance, European financial matters and international development at a strategic policy-making level. He has successfully established two new offices and teams for solving discrete assignments: one analytical function about global trends and the evolving multilateral development landscape serving UNICEF’s senior management; and a second establishing a Secretariat at the OECD which delivers accountability information on multilateral organizations for a network of 19 governments.
He served for more than five years as Sweden’s official representative to the Executive Boards of the World Bank and the African Development Bank, occupying increasingly senior positions, including as acting Executive Director. Mr. Gillsäter had extensive experience in advising finance and development ministers from several donor governments, as well as he heads of agencies and senior management in six multilateral organizations. He is equipped with strong negotiating and drafting skills and exceptional interpersonal skills. He also has management experience in a multinational environment.

Subinay Nandy, until recently served as Director, Asia and the Pacific, Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations in New York. Prior to that he led the UN operations in post-war Sri Lanka as UN Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative managing complex work in support of political, development and humanitarian transitions while pursuing support to the overall transitional justice agenda. His prior UNDP assignments included UNDP Country Director in Vietnam and China. He was Deputy Resident Representative in UNDP Turkmenistan and Assistant Resident Representative in UNDP Bangladesh. Before joining the UNDP, Subinay Nandy worked as socio-economic adviser in the coastal area development initiatives in Bangladesh and other countries. Subinay obtained PhD in Agricultural Economics degree at the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy.

Lauren Bradford is Director of Global Partnerships at Foundation Center, where her role is to create a global strategy for developing and managing bilateral and multilateral partnerships. Prior to joining Foundation Center, Lauren was with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) where she advised and coordinated the OECD Post-2015 Task Team and supported the work on financing for development including Total Official Support for Sustainable Development (TOSSD). Lauren worked in strategic urban planning in Australia before transitioning to the United Nations Resident Coordinators Office in Timor-Leste, where she worked on Millennium Development Goal progress and UN Country Team coordination before joining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) World Heritage Center in Paris.

Thangavel Palanivel is the Deputy Director at the Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York. Prior to this, he was Senior Strategic Advisor, Chief Economist and Head of the Regional Strategy & Policy Unit at the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific; Regional Programme Coordinator, Senior Advisor and Team Leader for Poverty and MDGs Team at the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre in Sri Lanka; and Regional Programme Coordinator and Head of the UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Poverty/MDGs Programme Office Nepal. Previously, he has worked at the United Nations University, University of Pennsylvania, and Institute of Economic Growth on several projects and capacity building activities on sustainable development. He holds a Doctorate in development economics. Among this numerous publications, is the recent UNDP 2016 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report on Shaping the Future: How Changing Demographics Can Power Human Development.

Heather Grady is a Vice President of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and leads the organization’s strategy and program development in global philanthropy. She leads RPA’s efforts on the SDG Philanthropy Platform, a collaboration to encourage philanthropy to engage more meaningfully in the SDGs. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the China Global Philanthropy Institute.

She has more than 20 years of experience in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, managing development and humanitarian programs in areas of education, livelihoods, health, agriculture, and microfinance. A veteran development practitioner, Heather has served in various important positions including Vice President at The Rockefeller Foundation and Managing Director of Realizing Rights. She serves on a number of Boards and Advisory Groups including The B Team, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, and the Wildlife Justice Commission, and is a member of the WEF Global Future Council on International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development.

John Meyers is Managing Director – North America for Swisscontact and Executive Director, Swisscontact North America, Inc. He represents Swisscontact to North American constituencies and to the UN Economic and Social Council. John serves as Co-President, Microfinance Club of New York. He is former Senior Advisor, Business Development and Director, Global Programs and Social Investing, Aid to Artisans. Active internationally for much of his career, John was appointed twice to the United States delegation to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Human Resource Development Working Group; served as Executive Director of Lawyers Without Borders; and was a founding editor of the Journal of Studies in International Education. He received his B.A. in International Relations from The American University of Paris; MLS from Rutgers University School of Communication & Information; and M.A. in History from Columbia University.

Sundaa Bridgett-Jones, a veteran development professional, is a Senior Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation where she has shaped the Foundation’s investments in urban resilience and now pioneers a portfolio of work on global governance. Previously, Sundaa led the Office of Policy Planning and Public Diplomacy with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in groundbreaking advocacy on Internet and religious freedoms. Formerly, she managed c-suite affairs at the United Nations Department of Political Affairs, and devised preventive diplomacy plans for South Asia. Sundaa served as an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and reflected on U.S. foreign policy and democracy promotion after a decade of leading USAID governance initiatives in the Middle East, Southern Africa, and Central Asia.