A journalist in Asia for nearly 35 years, Maria Ressa co-founded Rappler, the top digital only news site that is leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler's executive editor and CEO, Maria has endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government, forced to post bail eight times to stay free. Rappler's battle for truth and democracy is the subject of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival documentary, A Thousand Cuts. 

For her courage and work on disinformation and 'fake news,' Maria was named Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year, was among its 100 Most Influential People of 2019, and has also been named one of Time's Most Influential Women of the Century. She was also part of BBC's 100 most inspiring and influential women of 2019 and Prospect magazine's world's top 50 thinkers. Among many awards, she received the prestigious Golden Pen of Freedom Award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Knight International Journalism Award from the International Center for Journalists, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Shorenstein Journalism Award from Stanford University, the Columbia Journalism Award, the Free Media Pioneer Award from the International Press Institute, and the Sergei Magnitsky Award for Investigative Journalism. 

Before founding Rappler, Maria focused on investigating terrorism in Southeast Asia. She opened and ran CNN's Manila Bureau for nearly a decade before opening the network's Jakarta Bureau, which she ran from 1995 to 2005. She wrote Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia and From Bin Laden to Facebook: 10 Days of Abduction, 10 Years of Terrorism.

Kim Bode is passionate about user-centred journalism and newsroom innovation, putting community building and engagement front and centre. In her role as community and product operations manager at News Deeply, she’s responsible for implementing and evaluating new tools and workflows to advance community-centred journalism. She also developed a master’s level course for NYU’s Journalism Institute on reporting with, rather than on, a community. Originally from Berlin, Kim had been working as a business correspondent in New York for several years before completing NYU’s Studio 20 program, focused on innovation in journalism. 

Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world.

A longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology, Schiller has held executive roles at some of the most respected media organizations in the world. Those include, Global Chair of News at Twitter where she led the company’s strategy for news and partnership with journalism organizations and the news publishing ecosystem. Schiller previously served as Senior VP & Chief Digital Officer for NBC News where she had strategic and operational oversight of the networks‘ presence on the web, mobile, devices, and social media.

Prior to NBC, Schiller served as President and CEO of NPR, leading all of NPR's worldwide media operations. She was Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications. Earlier in her career, Schiller was the head of CNN Productions, where she led CNN's long-form programming efforts. Documentaries and series produced under her auspices earned multiple honors, including three Peabody Awards, four Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards, and dozens of Emmys. 

Dame Frances Cairncross, is a British economist, respected journalist and academic.
She is Chair of the UK’s independent review into the future of quality journalism.
She is Chair of the Court of Heriot Watt University and a former Rector of Exeter College, Oxford.
She spent 13 years as an economic columnist for the Guardian and 20 years as a senior editor at The Economist.
She is the author of a number of books, including "The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution is Changing our Lives".

Nancy Lane is the dynamic leader of the Local Media Association, an organisation that supports nearly 3,000 newspapers, TV stations, digital sites, radio stations and R&D partners in North America. LMA’s mission is to reinvent business models for news.  

The association announced the creation of Accelerate Local last year and launched six different labs including the GNI Subs Lab, The Branded Content Project and the Digital Transformation Lab for Publishers of Color. In 2020, four new projects have been launched: COVID-19 local news fund (has raised $1.4 million for over 200 publishers), Oklahoma Media Center, a news collaborative in Chicago and The Fund for Local Journalism.

Lane has served as CEO since October 2000 and prior to that she held publisher and senior level positions with daily and weekly newspapers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Missouri. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova University and also serves as the immediate past president on the VU Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Ingeborg Volan is editor for publishing strategy and visual journalismat Dagens Næringsliv, Norway’s most prominent business newspaper. Previously, she held the position of director of audience engagement. She’s an online news veteran who early saw the possibilities of reaching audiences better online. She’s very passionate about understanding news users and letting their needs shape journalism. Among other roles, Ingeborg has previously worked as the first head of social media at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and lead the NRKbeta innovation crew. She’s also taught digital journalism at the Norwegian Institute for Journalism, been head of newsroom innovation at Adresseavisen and president of the Norwegian Online News Organization.

Education: College of William & Mary, BA in English; American University, MA in Journalism and Public Affairs

Greg Barber is the Post newsroom's director of product. He manages the newsroom's suite of software tools and leads the groups of reporters, editors, product managers and engineers who create them. He joined The Post in 2003 as one of the founding editors of Express, was managing editor of the WaPo Labs R&D group and co-founded The Coral Project.

As a Partner at Innovation, Juan Senor has directed projects all over the world helping news operations to re-invent their products and stay relevant with shifting audiences. He has worked and advised hundreds of media companies on every continent. He serves on the Advisory Board of several media companies around the world. 

He has been listed as one of 'The World's Leading Innovators' in Journalism and Media' by Journalism UK Site.

Mr Señor is a highly-sought commentator on the media industry, speaking at global forums and quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times. 

He is also the co-editor of two annuals books; Innovation in NewsMedia and Innovation in MagazineMedia, written on behalf of WAN-IFRA and the FIPP respectively.

He is a former journalist and presenter for PBS's NewsHour, EBN-Wall Street Journal TV, CNBC Europe. And he served as London correspondent of International Herald Tribune Television. His work has been nominated for an Emmy Award and his television programme, Media Report, was voted by viewers as Europe’s Best Business Programme. He continues to work as a live events and television host and presenter globally.

Sebastian Esser is a co-founder of Krautreporter (KR), a digital magazine, and Steady, a membership platform that helps your audience become paying members. KR was crowdfunded in 2014 by more than 17.000 people. It has been publishing stories on politics and social issues and specializes in ad-free, independent, collaborative journalism.

Since 2016, Sebastian is a co-founder of Steady, a membership platform, providing tools for people powered media businesses all over Europe. Sebastian has been a reporter on national politics for Vanity Fair Germany and on the German media industry for V.i.S.d.P. magazine.

Adriaan Basson is editor-in-chief of News24, South Africa’s largest website with an average monthly audience of 8 million people across mobile, app and desktop. An experienced investigative journalist and author, Basson leads a team of journalists, content producers and video journalists who lead coverage of news, business, sports and entertainment in South Africa.

Alan Geere’s 40-year career in newspaper management, media development and academia has taken him around the world from Afghanistan to Uganda taking in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. He is due to complete his PhD on Editorial Leadership next year - and is proud to have been 'The Editor'!

Etienne Millien has been a journalist for 20 years in the UK, the US and France. As a Wall Street Correspondent for Bloomberg TV, he covered the 2008 Financial Crisis and its expansion worldwide. He then worked as Assignment Desk Editor in London before returning to France and joining Sud Ouest newspaper, in Bordeaux. Since 2013, as well as working as a local reporter, he has been spearheading media-education projects for the association of French Regional Newspapers in France where he has been supporting the development of media education in schools in the country, especially through National Press Week. Under the umbrella of the new Alliance of French Newspapers, he will focus their actions on news literacy towards young adults.

Dr François Nel and Dr Coral Millburn-Curtis lead the Innovation Research Group which is a partnership between applied researchers from Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford and the University of Central Lancashire, where François is the founding director of the pioneering Journalism Leaders Programme. He has worked with WAN-IFRA since 2009 to research the priorities of news executives worldwide and is the editor of the association's World Press Trends initiative. François is the first academic to become an executive member of the World Editors Forum and works to support entrepreneurial individuals and forward-thinking organisations worldwide, including News UK, Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press, CN Group and Times Media Ltd (South Africa).

Florian Wende is passionate about creating new forms of journalism for young people. He is deputy editorial director of the editorial staff Freistunde at the media group Straubinger Tagblatt/Landshuter Zeitung. The team is releasing a weekly newspaper for young people. Florian is convinced that the stories, interviews and pictures work more intense bundled in a printed newspaper than on any display.
But of course social media is a big topic for him, too. The team picks the target group up where they are and brings them to the printed Freistunde. That’s why they deliver daily stories on Instagram. Anyway contact to the target group is important for Florian. Freistunde organizes many events for young people: discussions, poetry slams, editorial meetings with readers. All activities fix on the printed newspaper – the center of the brand Freistunde.
Freistunde has been awarded several times: European Newspaper Award (2017), Print Innovation Award (2018), Bavarian Print Price (2018).

Nick runs WAN-IFRA's most advanced digital revenue programmes, including the Table Stakes Europe programme and the subscription focused eRev initiative, as well as managing our events and operations in Europe & Africa.

He started his career in London and has over fifteen years experience in innovative digital projects and collaborative working.

Before joining WAN-IFRA, he managed IT projects for ExxonMobil, Deutsche Bank and the European Patent Office, and facilitated the exec forums and conferences for the e-gov agency London Connects. He has a Diploma in Creativity, Innovation & Change from the Open University Business School.

Sir Alan Moses has been Chairman of IPSO, the independent regulator of the majority of the UK’s newspaper and magazine industry, since it was established in 2015 after the Leveson Inquiry. He is a former Lord Justice of Appeal and previously served as a High Court Judge (Queen's Bench Division) and as Presiding Judge of the South Eastern Circuit.

Fergus Bell is an experienced journalist, editor and leading expert in digital newsgathering, verification, newsroom innovation and collaborative journalism projects. He is also a strong advocate for higher ethical standards in digital journalism.
Fergus’ experience spans both the business and editorial sides of the news industry. He spent eight years at the Associated Press, where he became their first International Social Media and UGC Editor. He then headed up newsroom partnerships and innovation for digital newsgathering start-up, SAM Desk. Fergus founded Dig Deeper Media in 2015 and advises broadcasters, publishers and start-ups on social and digital newsgathering, newsroom transformation and innovation. In 2017 he launched Pop-Up Newsroom, a framework for collaborative journalism projects that has already seen success in the US, UK, Sweden and won an Online Journalism Award in 2018 for "Verificado" - an initiative designed to monitor for misinformation during the Mexican elections. Fergus was named as a 2019 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow. He is a faculty member of the European Broadcast Union’s Academy. He serves on the board of the Online News Association. He is the co-founder and CEO of fathm a media consultancy and news lab.

Ritu Kapur is the co-founder and CEO of The Quint and board member, World Editors Forum. She is also a Board Member at Oxford University’s prestigious Reuters Institute Of Journalism and the World Editor's Forum. She used to head Programming at History Channel, was Features Editor at CNN IBN, where she launched the popular CJ (Citizen Journalist) Show, among others. Kapur has been recognized by Outlook Business as "Woman of Worth 2017 - The Newsmaker".

Under her leadership, The Quint has grown by nearly 250% Year on Year in terms of both Unique Users and Pageviews, and seen a 100%+ growth in revenue, and pulled in some of the biggest clients in the industry. She has also driven the redesign of The Quint's website, founded the proprietary interactive microsite format "Quint Lab", and launched the health content platform "Quint Fit".

Along with being an accomplished leader, she has spearheaded many initiatives and campaigns tackling social issues. Some of her most successful campaigns are Register To Vote and Power Of 49, which championed a manifesto for women, who comprise 49 per cent of the population. Another significant initiative was The Quint's partnership with BBC, which led to the birth of #SwachhDigital India, a campaign against fake news.

Ritu Kapur has also strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech such as Talking Stalking, Bol and Citizen Q.

Alexandra Borchardt a senior journalist, keynote speaker, media consultant and Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. As a Director of Leadership Programmes at the Institute until July 2019 she developed and led on the seminar series “Oxford Perspectives”, targeting senior journalists, editors and media managers. Prior to this, she was managing editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Germany’s leading quality daily.

Alexandra’s main focus is digital transformation and how it impacts the media, democracy, the workplace and human behaviour. She teaches “Leadership and Strategy in the 21st Century” at TU Munich, gives lectures and talks on digitisation and the media and publishes opinion pieces with Project Syndicate, NewsMavens and theEuropean Journalism Observatory. She is the author of Mensch 4.0 – Frei bleiben in einer digitalen Welt (Freedom in a digital world), Guetersloher Verlagshaus (Random House), 2018. She serves as vice chair of the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Quality Journalism in the Digital Age.

At SZ she held several functions in the politics and business sections. She was also founding editor of Süddeutsche’s ‘Plan W’, an award winning quarterly magazine for women and business. In her reporting she has focused on internet and democracy and the future of work. In 2015 she published Das Internet zwischen Diktatur und Anarchie: Zehn Thesen zur Demokratisierung der digitalen Welt (The Internet between Dictatorship and Anarchy: Ten Assertions about Democracy in the Digital World), Süddeutsche Zeitung Edition Streitschrift. Before joining SZ she worked for Financial Times Deutschland and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Tulane University, New Orleans (1994), and in 2013 completed a Programme for Management Development at IESE Business School, Barcelona.

Denise, an Edinburgh University law graduate, has worked in the media industry for over thirty years.

Beginning her career at Aberdeen Press and Journal Ltd she held the position of Marketing Manager.  She has also held a number of senior posts, including Group Sales Promotion Controller of Thomson Regional Newspapers, Sales Promotion Manager of the Scotsman Publications Ltd and Marketing Director of Trinity Mirror plc (Midlands division).

She joined the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd in 2000 (part of the Trinity Mirror Plc) and held a number of posts, laterally as Managing Director of Trinity Mirror’s Scottish & North East of England division.

In 2014 Denise took up the position of Head of Commercial in DC Thomson with a remit to lead the advertising, marketing and events teams of the Newspaper Division.

In 2017, Denise became Chief Commercial Officer of DCT Media, adding radio to her remit. She is also the President of the Scottish Newspaper Society.

Since March 2019, Tina Stiegler is mentoring new tech companies in growth strategies and go-to-market at StartUp Lab in Oslo. Prior to that, she spent 17 years in Schibsted Media Group. Her last position was Head of Next Media. Tina started in Schibsted as a management trainee in 2002, and has since held positions as organizational director in Verdens Gang (VG), as well as different positions in Bergens Tidende and VG. Tina was COO/CFO in Schibsted Norway from 2012, and took on the role as project lead for the reorganization project in 2015 when she became part of the group management team of Schibsted Media Group. Tina holds a degree in economics and business administration (“siviløkonom”) from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)/Pontíficia Universidad Católica de Chile, as well as studies in literature and French from the University of Bergen/Université de Nice-Sofia Antipolis.

Michael Golden was appointed vice chairman of The New York Times Company in October 1997. He was also elected to the Company’s Board of Directors in 1997. From 2009 to January 2012, Mr. Golden served as president and chief operating officer of The New York Times Company Regional Media Group. Mr. Golden served as publisher of the International Herald Tribune from 2003 to 2008.

Mr. Golden is the President of WAN-IFRA. He is also chairman of the board of directors for International Center for Journalists, a Washington, DC-based non-profit organisation that raises journalism standards through hands-on training workshops, seminars, fellowships and international exchanges. Additionally, Mr. Golden serves on the boards of The Associated Press and the Newspaper Association of America. He also serves on the board of directors of Graham Windham.

Phillip Crawley is the Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. He worked in Europe, Asia and New Zealand before he joined The Globe and Mail in October 1998 as President and COO. He was appointed Publisher and CEO in June 1999. In print for 165 years, The Globe and Mail has consistently delivered Canada's best and deepest coverage of national, international and business news. With a cumulative six-day readership total of over 2.4 million, The Globe and Mail has a wide and a highly loyal readership.

Warren Fernandez joined the paper in 1990 as a political reporter and rose to become a News Editor. He went on to serve as Foreign Editor and Deputy Editor.

Fernandez then joined Royal Dutch Shell in 2008 as a Global Manager for its Future Energy Project, before returning to the paper in February 2012 as its Editor. He assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief of Singapore Press Holdings’ (SPH) English/Malay/Tamil Media group (EMTM) from July 2016.

Fernandez graduated with First Class Honours from Oxford University, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He also holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In his role, Madhav Chinnappa works on partnerships and collaboration between Google and the news industry.  Most recently, he launched the Digital News Initiative which in March 2018 evolved to become part of the Google News Initiative, Google's overarching global framework for engagement with the news ecosystem.  

Madhav joined Google in 2010 to focus on Google News & Magazines in the EMEA region. He has worked in the news industry since 1994 - first in the launch team of Associated Press Television (APTV), a year in M&A at United News & Media and spent over 9 years at BBC News, latterly as Head of Development & Rights.

Jamie is responsible for the delivery and development of Digital Catapult's industry leading acceleration and engagement programmes, including the Machine Intelligence Garage, the Audience of the Future initiative and CreativeXR; he also shapes new commercial programmes for Digital Catapult's diverse client base. Digital Catapult's recent work has seen them explore content personalisation, new storytelling mediums created by VR and AR and the application of Distributed Ledger Technology for news media.  Prior to joining Digital Catapult Jamie's delivery expertise have seen him manage projects for leading brands including Nokia, TATA, Google, Lego, Tesco and Walt Disney.

Nicola Sturgeon is Scotland’s first woman leader and has led the Scottish National Party since 2014. She is the fifth leader since the Scottish Parliament and government were established in 1999.

Joanne Butcher is chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ), the industry's charity that delivers the premier training scheme for journalists in the UK. Joanne has led the NCTJ during a decade of radical changes to the organisation, its qualifications and accreditation scheme, and she has developed its charitable activities, notably the Journalism Diversity Fund and its role in the Community News Project.  Joanne began her career in marketing and moved into her first training role at the Newspaper Society. She then joined the Periodical Publishers Association as director of the Periodicals Training Council. Before joining the NCTJ, Joanne was chief executive of the Publishing National Training Organisation.

Anna Nimiriano Nunu Siya is a veteran South Sudanese journalist with more than fifteen years of experience in print and broadcast journalism.

Besides being one of the founders of Juba Monitor, a daily English publication, Anna currently serves as the Editor In Chief of the Juba Monitor and has previously worked for the now-defunct Khartoum Monitor as Editorial Director and subsequently Managing Editor. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from college of Community Studies and Rural Development, University of Juba and a Diploma in Theology, Institute of Theology for the Laity.

Anna has attended several local and international media training workshops in Kenya, Uganda, Washington DC, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, Tanzania, China and India. She is a member of the National Editors’ Forum in South Sudan.

Clare Cook is co-founder of the Media Innovation Studio, a research centre at Uclan university, UK. Its primary aim is to unlock meaningful innovation in journalism. The impact of MIS is felt globally through its network of industry partners, enterprises and communities. Her work is guided by the principles of open innovation, a mindset that seeks impact beyond the silos of intradisciplinary or corporate research labs. She is currently developing a platform to create and capture new revenues for hyperlocals in the UK news supply chain, funded by Google DNI. She has a proven track record developing sustainable business models, see Sustainable Business Models for Journalism on the Net, downloaded 40,000 times globally. She works at the intersection of university innovation labs, with philanthropic support programmes such as FOJO Media, Wan-Ifra’s Strengthening Media & Society, Internews Europe, EJC Engaged Journalism Accelerator and the Global Forum for Media Development, and corporate media like REACH plc. See clarecookonline.com & mediainnovationstudio.org

Melanie is a gender and media development expert with more than 10 years’ experience leading capacity building and advocacy initiatives which place gender equality at their core. As director of Media Development for WAN-IFRA, Melanie oversees the organisation’s media development portfolio, which includes management of a multi-million euro budget to support media in 25 countries around the globe.  Melanie is a creator of WAN-IFRA’s sector-leading Women in News programme, an ambitious multi-year initiative to promote women’s leadership and voices in the news with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Melanie has previously held various leadership, programme development and social investment strategy positions in North America and Europe, including four years with the Toronto-based Women’s Executive Network, where as Vice President International, she led the company’s expansion to its first international market with the launch of WXN Ireland. Melanie has a BA (Hons) from Kings College, Dalhousie University, and holds an Msc from the London School of Economics, University of London.

Acil Tabbara is a Senior Editor at the French-language Lebanese daily L'Orient du Jour.

Tabbara, an experienced Lebanese journalist, started her career in journalism in Beirut when she first joined Agence France Presse (AFP) in 1986 at the height of the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war. At that time, she was completing her MA in Political Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Covering the last years of the bloody and destructive war in her home country, the western hostage crisis and the Palestinian camps war was just the beginning of a long journey that made her a witness to the human tragedies resulting from numerous other wars that broke out in the region.

Tabbara has covered some of the main events that shaped the Middle East, including specifically the Arab-Israeli conflict, the wars in Iraq and the Arab regimes changes in 2011. From 2009 to 2014, she served as head of AFP Gulf and Yemen bureau where she managed a large multimedia team to produce stories from the GCC countries and Yemen in three languages (Arabic, French and English). Her special coverage included the Yemen uprising that developed later into a war, as well as the demonstrations in Bahrain that were harshly suppressed.

Before that, she managed in AFP’s regional headquarters in Nicosia, Cyprus the Arabic desk and its 30 journalists and correspondents who were reporting from the different offices in the MENA region. She also supervised the translation into Arabic of the AFP international service. Tabbara also worked as a reporter in Cairo, covering Egypt and the Sudan and as an editor for the Nicosia-based French desk for the Middle East. Her numerous special assignments included the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Washington, the return of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Gaza and Iraq under sanctions. She also traveled for special coverage to Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia and many other countries in the Arab world.

In 2011, she spent one year in Syria as correspondent for Radio France Internationale (RFI), covering the crackdown and trials of opposition figures during what was called “the Damascus Spring”. After serving as copy editor at AFP international desk in Paris from 2014 to 2017, she took a sabbatical leave and moved back to Beirut where she joined the L’Orient Le Jour, the leading French speaking newspaper in the Middle East, as senior editor.

Despite being a general news journalist, she always tried to shed light on the situation of Arab women as part of her reporting.

Stavria Constantinou is from Cyprus. She has graduated from University of Cyprus with a bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies and Philosophy. Afterwards, she received a master’s degree in Public Administration from University of Nottingham. She is currently working at Sigmalive Ltd, part of Dias Media Group, as an Operations and Customer support officer, while working on finishing her second master in Journalism and Communications. She fluently speaks Greek and English.

Before joining TheStreet as CEO in 2016, David was Editor-in-Chief of USA Today, responsible for news coverage on America’s largest newspaper and fifth-largest digital news portfolio. David directed more than 400 journalists and worked with another 3,000 tied to 100 newspapers owned by USA Today parent company Gannett Inc.

 David joined USA Today in mid-2012 from MarketWatch, where he was also Editor-in-Chief. David ran MarketWatch through eight years of ownership by Dow Jones Co. and subsequently, News Corp., and four years before that as a public company which owned the website CBS MarketWatch. Dave also wrote a weekly column for MarketWatch, and was twice honored by the Society of American Editors and Writers for his commentary.

Before joining MarketWatch, Dave spent five years working for Bloomberg, almost all of it in London, where he ran a team that covered the financial services industry throughout Europe. Before Bloomberg, he spent six years as a reporter and columnist for The Boston Herald. He’s a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and currently splits his time between New York City and Corte Madera, Ca.

David Callaway is president of the World Editor’s Forum, a unit of WAN-IFRA, and a board member for the International Center for Journalists.

Safa al-Ahmad is a journalist and film-maker who has directed documentaries for PBS and the BBC focusing on uprisings in the Middle East. Her film Saudi’s Secret Uprising was the first documentary of its kind to document the historically unprecedented protests in the kingdom. An investigation that took over a year was the first documentary to be jointly produced and simultaneously aired by BBC English, Arabic and Farsi. Her work on Yemen spans almost a decade and reflects the bloody trajectory of the conflicts within the country and their international impact. In The Fight for Yemen, which was produced for the BBC and PBS's Frontline, Safa was one of the few journalists reporting to international news organizations from the ground during the crisis between Houthi rebels, militant groups, and the government. Her follow-up film Yemen Under Siege, which took a close-up look at the staggering human toll of the conflict in Yemen, took home two Emmy Awards in 2017.

She is also the winner of the 2015 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for Journalism, the El Mundo award for journalism for her body of work in 2015, the 2015 Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) International Press Freedom Award and the Association of International Broadcasting (AIB) Best International Investigation for her film Saudi's Secret Uprising in 2014. She was twice a finalist for the Rory Peck Sony Impact Award 2012-2014. Her writing on the Arab uprisings was published in an anthology Writing Revolutions published by Penguin which won an English Pen award.

Safa is a board member of the Frontline Freelance Register, and advocates for the safety and welfare of freelance journalists who are exposed to risk in their work.

Stan Wischnowski, Philadelphia Media Network’s Executive Editor and Senior Vice President, has led a complete reorganization of Pennsylvania’s largest news organization, which includes The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com. The reorganization has involved the merging of the three staffs, a vast restructuring of newsroom coverage teams, a significant expansion of content partnerships, and a physical redesign of the newsroom. Stan is also the founder of Spotlight PA, a 12-person investigative unit based in Pennsylvania’s capital city and funded through foundation grants received through the Lenfest Institute, the non-profit owner of the Inquirer.  PMN has been named the state’s top performing newsroom in the highest circulation category over the past three years. Stan has served as The Inquirer’s top news executive since 2010.  Under his leadership, the Inquirer won the 2014 Pulitzer for Criticism and the 2012 Pulitzer for Public Service.  The Inquirer was named a Pulitzer finalist in 2019 for Local Reporting. Prior to arriving in Philadelphia in 2000, he was a top editor at the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle andThe Detroit News.

As the General Manager of Newspapers at New Zealand news publisher, Stuff, Ben is responsible for driving the performance of Stuff’s newspapers and ultimately cementing the future of their award-winning portfolio.

Having started his career in UK and New Zealand communications agencies, Ben went on to hold executive-level sales, marketing and operational roles across a diverse range of categories. Ben's passion and focus is working with advertisers and agencies to grow revenue, creating bespoke propositions that only news media houses can. With first-hand experience as a major New Zealand advertiser and having run operational divisions at multinational organisations, Ben brings an unparalleled insight into what advertisers and clients are looking for, as well as a sound understanding of how the key strategic functions within a business fit together.

Fiona Hyslop was born in Ayrshire in 1964 and with her family spent her early years in England before returning to Ayrshire. She graduated from Glasgow University with an MA (Hons) in Economic History and Sociology.

 
She completed a post graduate Diploma in Industrial Administration at the Scottish College of Textiles, before moving to Edinburgh to join the financial services company Standard Life where she held various positions in sales and marketing, latterly as Brand Development Manager.
 
Elected in the first session of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 she has been returned as the Constituency MSP for Linlithgow since 2011.
 
She was appointed as Cabinet Secretary of Education and Lifelong Learning in 2007 and was responsible for abolishing backend university tuition fees. She has had responsibility for culture and external affairs since 2009 and is currently the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs.

Chris Louw leads content business operations at one of South Africa’s largest media groups, Caxton&CTP. In addition to the group’s stable of over 150 local and hyperlocal newspapers, Caxton owns and operates more than 100 news and special interest websites, making the group South Africa’s leader in community news. Chris played a central role in transforming its print products into digital assets, and, given his experience as a professional journalist, he now serves on various industry bodies, including the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), where he is a council member. Recently, Chris has been elected as the Chairman of the South African Interactive Advertising Bureau Publisher Council.

Justin Arenstein is a veteran South African investigative journalist and media entrepreneur. He is founder of Code4Africa and is behind impactAFRICA, the continent’s largest fund for data-driven storytelling.

He is an internationally recognised expert in data-driven journalism and related new media technologies. Arenstein co-founded the pioneering independent news wire agency African Eye News Service (AENS). AENS and Arenstein have received a string of international awards for their investigative exposés into government corruption and social justice issues. This includes the Knight International Journalism Award in 2000. Arenstein was also a 2009-2010 ICFJ Knight Fellow at Stanford University, where he explored social network analysis strategies for investigative journalism, as well as strategies to help independent grassroots media in Africa exploit the mobile web.

He serves as a consulting strategist on journalistic innovation for Google, and on the boards of a number of media industry entities and related press freedom bodies. He is a former member of the Press Council of South Africa, where he helped reform the Press Code and its press oversight mechanisms.

Wolfgang Krach, 54, is currently Editor-in-Chief of “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the largest selling national quality newspaper in Germany, based in Munich. Wolfgang studied philosophy, worked for several news agencies (AP, Reuters, dpa) and served as Munich correspondent for the regional daily “Donaukurier”. From 1993 to 1997, he was a political reporter at STERN magazine in Hamburg. Following this post, Mr. Krach was deputy bureau chief in Berlin of the news magazine DER SPIEGEL, after which he headed the national desk at DER SPIEGEL based in Hamburg. In 2003, he came to “Süddeutsche Zeitung” to serve as the paper's managing editor. In 2007, he was appointed to the role deputy editor-in-chief, since 2015 he has been editor-in-chief. As Editor-in-Chief he oversaw “Süddeutsche Zeitungs” investigation first of the Panama Papers – a cooperation with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting 2017, then the investigation of the Paradise Papers – also in cooperation with the ICIJ – that won a George Polk Award in 2018.