Natalie Samarasinghe is the Executive Director of the United Nations Association – UK where she has worked since 2006. The first woman to hold this post, Natalie has overall responsibility for UNA-UK’s programmes, with particular focus on advocacy, strategic communications, human rights, peace and security, and UN reform, including the Together First campaign on the Organization’s 75th anniversary in 2020. Currently on sabbatical from UNA-UK, she is serving as the chief speechwriter in English for the President of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Natalie is a regular commentator on UN issues, and has edited or contributed to publications including the SAGE Major Work on the UN, The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations and the Climate 2020 series. In 2013, she co-founded the 1 for 7 Billion campaign for a more transparent and inclusive process to select the UN Secretary-General. In 2018, she was awarded a prize by the Global Challenges Foundation for a proposal to open up UN decision-making and delivery to external stakeholders.
Nane Annan, is a former Legal Officer, UN Refugee Agency & wife of the late Kofi Annan. She joined the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva as a legal officer in 1981, where she met Kofi Annan. Prior to this, she worked as an assistant judge at the administrative and fiscal court of appeal, after studying law in Stockholm. Nane has dedicated much of her life focusing on women’s issues, supporting programmes designed to alleviate poverty, and the welfare of children, refugees and the disabled. In addition to her activities related to human rights, Nane is also an artist, and has provided artwork to several group exhibitions for organisations including UNICEF and UN Children’s Fund. In 2000, she published a book “The United Nations, come along with me!” which was illustrated by children. Today, she sits on the board of the Kofi Annan Foundation.
Sherrie Westin is President of Social Impact and Philanthropy for Sesame Workshop, the not-for-profit educational organisation behind Sesame Street. She has spearheaded a partnership to create the largest early childhood intervention in the history of humanitarian support, which brought education and care to refugee children in the Syrian response region. Westin was named a “Leading Global Thinker” by Foreign Policy Magazine and one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” and was recognized with the Smithsonian’s “American Ingenuity Award”. A staunch advocate for addressing children’s needs, she regularly appears on major media outlets with Sesame Street’s iconic Muppets promoting Sesame’s social impact initiatives around the world. Having held leadership positions in media, nonprofit and public service sectors, she now serves on the board of directors for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, the US Global Leadership Coalition, and Communities in Schools. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the US Afghan Women’s Council and the Early Childhood Peace Consortium Advisory Board.
Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is the highest-ranking UK citizen to have served at the UN. He served as Deputy Secretary-General and Chief of Staff of the UN under Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and previously held the position of Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Lord Malloch-Brown was later Minister of State in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, covering Africa and Asia, and was a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet. Other positions have included Chair of International Crisis Group, Vice-Chairman of George Soros’s Investment Funds - as well as his Open Society Foundation - and a Vice-President at the World Bank.
Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997), former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002) and has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. She co-founded the Council of Women World Leaders, a network that mobilises women leaders at the highest levels to promote democracy and gender equality. She served as the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa from 2013-2014, stepping down in July 2014 to take up the post of Special Envoy for Climate Change. She continued in this post until the end of December 2015 which saw the successful conclusion of the COP21 Climate Summit and the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change. In May 2016, Mary Robinson was appointed as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate, along with Macharia Kamau of Kenya, to focus the world’s attention to meet the urgent challenges posed by extreme weather events on the poorest and most vulnerable communities. The recipient of numerous honours and awards throughout the world including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, Mary Robinson is Chair of The Elders, former Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, and a member of the Club of Madrid. Mary Robinson now serves as President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice.