Gillian Tett serves as US managing editor. She writes weekly columns for the Financial Times, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues. In 2014, she was named Columnist of the Year in the British Press Awards and was the first recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute Marsh Award. Her other honors include a SABEW Award for best feature article (2012), President’s Medal by the British Academy (2011), being recognized as Journalist of the Year (2009) and Business Journalist of the Year (2008) by the British Press Awards, and as Senior Financial Journalist of the Year (2007) by the Wincott Awards. In June 2009 her book Fool’s Gold won Financial Book of the Year at the inaugural Spear’s Book Awards.

Currently the Budget and Management Secretary under the Aquino administration, Florencio “Butch” Barsana Abad has worked in various capacities as a reform advocate and public servant for over 30 years.  

Unknown to many, "Butch" prefaced his political career by providing legal assistance to landless farmers and human rights victims at the height of the Marcos dictatorship. It was only natural that he would engage in such "barefoot lawyering," as Butch himself had received public assistance in his law studies. Together with Fr. Joaquin Bernas, he founded the Ateneo Legal Assistance Center, where he and his peers worked as paralegals for clients who otherwise could not afford legal services.

He later served as Representative of Batanes in 1987 and was appointed Secretary of Agrarian Reform under the first Aquino administration. He later returned to Congress as House Representative of Batanes in 1995, where he served three consecutive terms. In 2004, he began his term as Secretary of Education, during which he pursued key reforms in basic education that he started as a legislator.

From 1999 to 1994, Abad served as president of the Liberal Party, He continues to be a highly influential figure in the organization and is widely regarded as a mentor for political aspirants. These include President Benigno S. Aquino III himself, whom Abad served as campaign manager in his Senatorial and Presidential bids in 2007 and 2010.

Since assuming the role of Budget and Management Secretary, he has successfully spearheaded several expenditure reforms—including the GAA-as-Release Document, Performance-Based Budgeting, Grassroots Participatory Budgeting, and landmark digitization initiatives—effectively bringing greater transparency, accountability, and openness to the public expenditure process.  

Sufian Ahmed Beker has been the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since October 2001. Prior to this, he was the Minister of Finance, beginning this role in 1995. He has been involved in the administration of his home state, Oromiya. He began his career as a lecturer at Jimma College of Agriculture and Addis Ababa University....

Betrand Badré is the Managing Director and World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer. He has extensive financial sector experience, including as Group Chief Financial Officer at Société Général and Crédit Agricole. In 2003, he served as the President Chirac’s deputy personal representative for Africa and as a spokesperson for the working group on new international financial contributions to fight poverty and fund development, which produced the Landau Report. Mr. Badré is a graduate of ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration) and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University, and special adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He is also the Director of the recently-established UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the United Nations Millennium Project’s work on MDGs. He received his MA and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Wu Hongbo is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. He guides the UN Secretariat support for the follow-up processes of the Rio+20 Conference and is currently serving as the Secretary-General of the third International Conference on Financing for Development. Prior to his appointment as Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Wu served as the People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Germany. Among his various other diplomatic assignments, Mr. Wu served as Ambassador to the Philippines and Director-General and Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. He graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University and pursued his postgraduate studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

Min Zhu was appointed Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund on July 26, 2011. Previously he was a Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China, responsible for international affairs, policy research, and credit information. He served as the Group Executive Vice President of Bank of China before joining the country’s Central Bank. He also worked at the World Bank and taught economics at both Johns Hopkins University and Fudan University. He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.