Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri is the UAE’s Minister of Climate Change and Environment. She leads the nation’s comprehensive efforts to accelerate climate action, safeguard ecosystems, enhance biodiversity, and strengthen food security by developing and implementing impactful strategies, policies, and initiatives. A member of the COP28 UAE Higher Committee, Her Excellency oversees the national preparations for the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be hosted by the nation in Dubai this year. Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri draws on her wealth of experience as Minister of State for Food Security (appointed in October 2017) and as Minister of State for Food and Water Security (appointed in June 2020). In these roles, she led the monitoring of national food stocks and water supply, directed investments in food technology innovation and built international partnerships. She also led infrastructure development to achieve the country’s food security objectives in line with the goals of the UAE Centennial 2071. Her Excellency also lends her significant expertise and leadership to several national and international organizations. She represents the UAE at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Center for Bio-saline Agriculture (ICBA). She is a member of the Board of Directors of Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA), and the Board of Trustees of Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation (KIADPAI). She is also a member of the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) Board of Trustees as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and serves on the International Advisory Board of EAT, a science-based global platform for food system transformation. Her Excellency also Chairs the Emirates Climate Change Council, the Emirates Food Security Council, the Circular Economy Council, and the Emirates Council for Environmental and Municipal Action. Prior to her ministerial appointment, Her Excellency headed the Biodiversity, Fisheries, Coastal & Marine Sustainability, and Marine Research Departments as Assistant Undersecretary for Water Resources and Nature Conservation Affairs at the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE). She has also served on the Board of Trustees for the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Food Systems Innovation. Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri has a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University in Germany (RWTH).

Before joining frontline politics, Chakwera was President of the Malawi Assemblies of God from 1989 until he resigned on May 14, 2013 to contest in the 2014 General Elections as a presidential candidate for the Malawi Congress party. That presidential election was marred by irregularities forcing the Electoral Commission to petition the High Court for permission to conduct a manual audit of the ballots. Though Chakwera was supportive of the audit, his rival, Arthur Peter Mutharika of Democratic Progressive Party took an injunction to stop it forcing the Commission to announce the results. Mutharika was declared winner by 8.6 percent margin. Following the declaration, Chakwera announced that he would not challenge the results to give Mutharika a chance to prove himself in the highest office. In the meantime, Chakwera won a parliamentary seat and became the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly.

He served as Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly until February 2019 when he submitted his nomination papers to the Electoral Commission for the second time to run for presidential election in the May 21, 2019 elections. The elections were highly contested and marred by irregularities. The Commission used widespread correction fluid on results sheets. Despite complaints and accusations about the irregularities, the Commission declared Mutharika winner by a margin of 3.1 percent. However, on the day that Mutharika was inaugurated for a second term, Chakwera announced his decision to challenge the election result.

He and State Vice President Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima filed a petition to the Constitutional Court demanding a fresh presidential election. After a six-month hearing, the five-judge panel of the court unanimously nullified the 2019 presidential election on account of “massive, serious, and widespread irregularities” that violated multiple provisions of the Constitution and laws governing elections.

The court ordered that a fresh poll be held within 150 days of the ruling, but President Mutharika appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, which unanimously upheld the decision of the lower court. At the end of the election which took place on June 23, 2020, under the oversight of a newly constituted Electoral Commission, Chakwera won with 58.57 percent of the vote. Chakwera was born on the rural outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi on April 5, 1955 to Earnest Person Chakwera and Mallen Mwale, who were subsistence farmers.

Their home was typical rural, without electricity or running water or privileges of any kind. Their poor surroundings exposed the children to sickness so regularly that two of Chakwera’s brothers born before him died in infancy. His father named him Lazarus to express his faith that he would defy the odds and live long as the Bible character who was raised from the dead. He has a sister and a brother. Chakwera is married to Monica and together they have four children and 12 grandchildren.

In 1977, the year they were married, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Philosophy) Degree from the University of Malawi. He got his honors degree from the University of the North, Sovenga, South Africa. In 1991, he got his masters from the University of South Africa. The Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois, USA awarded him a doctorate in 2000. The Pan Africa Theological Seminary awarded him Professorship in 2005. He has served in a number of roles of executive leadership both in Malawi and internationally: He was Chairman of the Evangelical Association of Malawi (EAM) 1997-2014; Board Chairman for All Nations Theological Seminary 2008-2013; Board Member of the Global University, Springfield, Missouri, USA, 1999 – 2005.

He was also Board Chairman of the Pan Africa Theological Seminary (PATHS) 2004 – 2014; Chairman of Assoc. of Pentecostal Theological Education in Africa (APTEA) – 2011-2014; President of Africa Assemblies of God Alliance (2004-2013); Secretary of World Assemblies of God Fellowship (2005-2017); co-chair of the Facilitation Team created to resolve the Budget and Section 65 Parliamentary impasse between Cabinet and Opposition in 2008; Chairman of Malawi’s Petroleum Control Commission and the National Council for Sports. President Chakwera has promised to govern by a set of five principles that he calls The Chakwera SUPER HI-5, which highlight the five policy focus areas that will be high on his gubernatorial agenda: Servant Leadership; Uniting Malawi; Prospering Together; Ending Corruption; Rule of Law. 

Nathaniel C. Fick was sworn in on September 21, 2022 as the inaugural U.S. Ambassador at Large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy.

Prior to joining the State Department, Ambassador Fick was a technology executive and entrepreneur. He was CEO of the cybersecurity software company Endgame from 2012 through its acquisition by Elastic in 2019. Thereafter, he led Elastic’s information security business globally. Ambassador Fick spent nearly a decade as an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, working with management teams to build technology businesses. In 2018, he was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and Endgame was selected by Forbes as one of the “100 Best Cloud Companies in the World.”

From 2009 to 2012, Ambassador Fick was CEO of the Center for a New American Security, a national security research organization in Washington. Earlier in his career, he served as a Marine Corps infantry and reconnaissance officer, including combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. His book about that experience, One Bullet Away, was a New York Times bestseller, a Washington Post “Best Book of the Year,” and one of the Military Times‘s “Best Military Books of the Decade.”

Ambassador Fick graduated with high honors in Classics from Dartmouth College and holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Dr. Kalibata has served as the President of AGRA since 2014, where she leads the organization’s efforts with public and private partners to ensure a food secure and prosperous Africa through rapid, inclusive,sustainable agricultural growth, improving the productivity and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa.

From 2019-2021, Dr. Kalibata also served as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, a catalytic process at the start of the Decade of Action to improve food systems around the world to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Paris Agreement. Prior to joining AGRA, Dr. Kalibata was Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) from 2008 to 2014, where she drove programs that moved her country from a food insecure to a food secure status and became a reference point for other countries that sought to deliver agriculture transformation. Dr. Kalibata also sits on various boards, councils and commissions including the Global Commission on Adaptation, the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate,the Global Panel for Agriculture & Food Systems for Nutrition, the Global Agriculture & Food Security Program (GAFSP), the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum, the Malabo-Montpellier Panel, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions and the Global Commission on Climate Overshoot, among others. Dr. Kalibata has a distinguished track record as an agricultural scientist, policymaker and thought leader, and she holds a doctorate in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is recipient of many prestigious awards including but not limited to the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize, in 2012, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in 2018, an Honorary Doctorate from McGill University in 2019, and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal in April, 2019 for her work to drive Africa’s agricultural transformation through modern sciences and effective policy thereby improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In 2022, she received an Award from World Farmers Organization recognizing her leadership in mobilizing farmers’ contribution to the Food Systems Summit.

She was also feted by Prince Albert II of Monaco for leading efforts towards Africa’s food security and prosperity through inclusive and sustainable agricultural growth to secure livelihoods of millions of smallholders farmer since 2014. In 2023, Dr. Kalibata was appointed to the Advisory Committee of the 28th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As a member of the COP28 President’s Advisory Committee, Dr. Kalibata will contribute to the development and implementation of strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change.