Ralf Bredel, Director and UNIDO Representative to the UN in New York

Ralf Bredel is Director and Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to the United Nations Headquarters and to the other international organizations in New York. Prior to this role, he served as Chief of UNIDO’s Division for Asia & the Pacific from 2019-2021, where he managed relationships with countries in the region and oversaw the work of the Organization’s field offices in the Asia region. From 2016 to 2019, Mr. Bredel was Representative and Head of UNIDO’s Regional Office for China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Mongolia, based in Beijing. His tenure there coincided with China’s G20 Presidency, the country’s hosting of the BRICS process, and the Beijing Summit of the ‘Forum on China-Africa Cooperation’, all of which were actively supported by UNIDO. Previously, he also served as Deputy Representative of UNIDO to the United Nations at UN Headquarters in New York. 

Cecilia Ugaz, Deputy to the Director General and Managing Director of Strategic Planning, Programming and Policy at UNIDO

Cecilia Ugaz Estrada is Deputy to the UNIDO Director General and Managing Director of Strategic Planning, Programming and Policy. Previously, she served as Director of the Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Unit and of the Policy, Research and Statistics Division. Prior to joining UNIDO, she was the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Paraguay, Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP in Argentina and Deputy Director of the UNDP Human Development Report Office. Ms Ugaz Estrada also held various positions in other United Nations organizations and in academia in Switzerland, United Kingdom and Finland as well as with the World Bank in Washington, D.C. She holds a PhD in economics from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris (major: econometrics of investment) and has graduate degrees in economic modelling from France and Peru. 

H.E. Tesfaye Yilma Sabo, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia

H.E. Ambassador Tesfaye Yilma Sabo is the Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations in New York. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Sabo served as State Minister for Foreign Affairs from June to December 2022. From 2018 to 2022, he was Ethiopia’s Permanent Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia in 1992, he has held several key positions within the Ministry, including Director-General for European Affairs from 2017 to 2018; Chief of Cabinet from 2016 to 2017; Director-General for European and American Affairs from 2007 to 2010; and Division Head for the African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and Southern Africa region from 2001 to 2007. 

Stefan Pretterhofer, Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations

Stefan Pretterhofer is Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in New York. Prior to this role, Mr. Pretterhofer held several significant positions. He served as a member of the Cabinet of Federal Minister Alexander Schallenberg in Austria’s Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs  from August 2020 to July 2023. He was Head of Unit for South and Southeast Asia in the Department for Asia and the Pacific (October 2019 to July 2020), he worked as Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in New York (November 2014 to September 2019), and held roles as First Secretary and Attaché at the Austrian Embassy in Budapest (July 2010 to October 2014 and October 2009 to April 2010, respectively). 

Nobuya Haraguchi, Chief of the Industrial Policy Research Unit at UNIDO

Nobuya Haraguchi is Chief of the Industrial Policy Research Unit at UNIDO, where he oversees the Organization’s research work and industrial policy assessments. His Unit is responsible for producing UNIDO’s biennial flagship publication, The Industrial Development Report, conducting country diagnostics for programming, and producing policy recommendations through policy briefs and other publications. Mr. Haraguchi has published extensively on structural change, patterns of manufacturing development, and industrial policy. Prior to joining UNIDO, he taught macroeconomics at a university. 

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs at The New School and Member of the UN Committee for Development Policy

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is Professor of International Affairs at The New School. Her teaching and research work focuses on human rights and development, global health, and global goal setting and governance by indicators. From 1995 to 2004, she served as the lead author and Director of the UNDP Human Development Reports. Her recent publications include: Millennium Development Goals: Ideas, Interests and Influence (Routledge 2017) and Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights (with T. Lawson-Remer and S. Randolph, Oxford 2015). Ms. Fukuda-Parr won the American Political Science Association’s 2016 Best Book in Human Rights Scholarship and the 2019 Grawemeyer Prize for Ideas to Improve the World Order. She actively contributes to international policy and research processes. She is Chair of the UN Committee on Development Policy; Chair of the Boards of Knowledge Ecology International; Co-Director of the Collective on the Political Determinants of Health at the University of Oslo, and Distinguished Fellow at the JICA Research Institute, Tokyo.  

Lilac Nachum, Professor at Baruch College, the City University of New York

Lilac Nachum is Professor of International Business at City University New York, specializing in globalization and economic development. She has been teaching, consulting and publishing extensively on these topics for over three decades. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business (AIB), the world’s leading association of international business, and was a Fullbring Scholar in Kenya in 2021-2022. Ms. Nachum’s research has been featured in leading international business and management journals and in three books, one of which has been translated into Chinese. She has received several awards. She serve as Consulting Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) on Africa and the Middle East and as Associate Editor for both the Journal of International Business Policy and the Africa Journal of Management. In addition to her academic work, Nachum has consulted for several multinational firms and national and international organizations.

Shea Gopaul, IOE Permanent Representative to the UN

Shea Gopaul serves as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York for the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). The IOE has been one of the leading voices for business globally for over 100 years, representing over 150 employer federation members in 145 countries, advocating for the interests of over 50 million companies. In her role, Ms. Gopaul leads an initiative to enhance and expand private sector engagement with the United Nations at the national, regional and global levels. Through dialogues, publications, outreach and communications projects, the initiative aims to promote collaboration and foster partnerships between the public and private sectors to build back better from COVID-19 and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ms. Gopaul is also the Co-chair of the UN Major Group Business and Industry. 

Thomas Tödtling, Director KAS New York Office

Thomas Tödtling serves as Director of the International Office of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) in New York. Previously, he headed the EU Projects team in the Department for European and International Cooperation (EIZ) (from June 2019). He was responsible for KAS’s EU Decentralization Programme in Kenya prior to working for EIZ. Mr. Tödtling has also worked, among others, for a Member of European Parliament and was a senior consultant for a consulting firm in the field of public affairs and strategic communication. His academic background includes studies in political science with a focus on international politics as well as journalism and communication studies at the University of Vienna and the University of Bordeaux. 

Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation

Ms. Dima Al-Khatib serves as Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. Previously, she served as the UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Moldova. Ms. Al-Khatib has also worked, among others, as Programme and Policy Coordinator at the UNDP Regional Hub in Amman, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Kuwait, and UNDP Deputy Country Director in Libya. She holds a Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in Environmental Health from the Lebanese University and France University of Bordeaux II, and a Bachelor of Science and a Teaching Diploma in Environmental Health from the American University of Beirut.