Kyoto Conference

Co-chairperson, Kyoto Institute of Philosophy/Executive Chairman, NTT

Jun SAWADA

Chairman and Member of the Board, and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (currently NTT, Inc.). During his presidency, he pursued drastic reforms, including the announcement of the next-generation information and communication infrastructure concept “IOWN,” the reorganization of the NTT group, and the promotion of partnerships both domestically and internationally. He is also known for his deep appreciation of philosophy. In his book Paraconsistent World (NTT Publishing), he proposes a vision of the future from the perspectives of philosophy, life sciences, and information sciences. He also serves as the Chairman of the Japan-U.S. Business Council, a Vice Chair of the Japan Business Federation and a Visiting Professor of Ritsumeikan University Business School. In June 2024, he was awarded Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to UK/Japan trade and investment and to UK/Japan relations. He graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering, Kyoto University.

Professor, Department of Cultural and Creative Studies, School of Cultural and Creative Studies, Aoyama Gakuin University

FUKUOKA Shin-Ichi

Biologist, Author
Born in Tokyo in 1959. FUKUOKA Shin-Ichi graduated from Kyoto University, where he later completed a doctoral program. After working as a researcher at Harvard Medical School and as an assistant professor at Kyoto University, he was appointed to his current posts of professor at Aoyama Gakuin University and visiting professor at Rockefeller University in the U.S.A. Dr. FUKUOKA has published many books that re-examine the nature of life from the perspective of dynamic equilibrium theory, including the “Dynamic Equilibrium” series (Kirakusha) and Seibutsu to Museibutsu no Aida (“Between the animate and inanimate”; Kodansha Gendai Shinsho), which garnered the Suntory Prize and became a bestseller, with more than 900,000 copies sold. Dr. FUKUOKA was also put in charge of the “Quest of Life” theme project for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Director, Kiyomizu-dera Temple

Seigen Mori

Seigen Mori is a Buddhist priest and scholar with a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Rissho University. He currently serves as Director of Temple Affairs and Director of Educational Affairs at Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto, and as Chief Priest of Taisan-ji Temple. He is also a visiting fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Grief Care at Sophia University, and a visiting professor in the Tourism MBA Program at Ritsumeikan University. His radio program, Trip around 33, which introduces the Thirty-three Kannon Pilgrimage, received the 2019 JFN Award for excellence in regional broadcasting. He now leads Kiyomizu-dera Gakuho, a new initiative promoting the integration of Buddhism and the liberal arts. He is also the co-author of the book “An Invitation to Kiyomizu-dera Temple.” He is dedicated to bringing Buddhist teachings and Kannon’s path closer to people’s lives through study and experience.

Co-chairperson, Kyoto Institute of Philosophy/Dean and Professor of Philosophy,Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University

Yasuo Deguchi

Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Graduate School of Letters, and Vice Director of the Institute for the Future of Human and Society at Kyoto University. He completed his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, earning a Ph.D. in Letters. He joined the Philosophy Department at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Letters in 2002. His research areas include analytical Asian philosophy and philosophy of mathematical science. He is currently advocating a new value system called “WE-turn.” His recent works include AI Best Friend (Tokuma Shoten), What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (Oxford UP), and Moon Points Back (Oxford UP).

Commissioner, Cultural Affairs

Shunichi Tokura

Born in Tokyo, Japan.
Tokura’s professional music career started while studying law at Gakushuin University in Tokyo. He then further studied composition, conducting as well as screening and studio production extensively in Japan, Germany, and the United States.
Tokura has won numerous major music awards in Japan, including the "Japan Record Awards" and the "Japan Music Awards" four times each.
He has served in positions such as the chairman of Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), and as a board member of the Council for Cultural Affairs.
In 2018, Tokura was selected Person of Cultural Merit; and in April 2021, he was appointed Commissioner for Cultural Affairs.

Governor of Kyoto Prefecture

NISHIWAKI Takatoshi

Born in Kyoto on 16 July 1955
March 1979 Graduated from the University of Tokyo (Faculty of Law)
April 1979 Joined Ministry of Construction
April 1987 Director, General Traffic Division, Department of Planning and Coordination Yamagata Prefecture,
January 2001 Director, Community Development Promotion Division, City and Regional Development Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
July 2002 Director, Public Relations Division, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
July 2006 Director, Budget and Accounts Division, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
July 2008 Deputy Director-General, Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
February 2013Director-General, Policy Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
July 2014 Deputy Vice-Minister, Minister’s Secretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
July 2015 Vice-Minister, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
June 2016 Vice-Minister, Reconstruction Agency
April 2018 Elected as Governor of Kyoto Prefecture
April 2022 Re-elected (currently in the 2nd term)

https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/chiji/profile.html

Mayor of Kyoto City

MATSUI Koji

Date of Birth：April 24, 1960
Birthplace：Kyoto City
Graduated from the University of Tokyo in Social and International Relations, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences

Career History
1983 - Entered the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Current Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
1994 - Deputy Counsellor, Cabinet Secretariat
1996 - Deputy Director, Policy Planning and Coordination Division, Minister’s Secretariat, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
1998 - Director, Research System Improvement Office, Research Institute of International Trade and Industry
2001 - Member of the House of Councilors (Elected first time)
2007 - Member of the House of Councilors(Re-elected)
2009 - Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
2013 - Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University
Feb 2024 - The 27th Mayor of Kyoto

President, Kyoto University

Nagahiro Minato

Nagahiro Minato is the president of Kyoto University. Born in 1951, he holds the degree of doctor of medicine. After graduating from Kyoto University’s Faculty of Medicine in 1975, he worked as an associate researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1977-80. In 1992, he was appointed as professor of immunology and cell biology at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Medicine, where he served as dean from 2010-14. After serving as Kyoto University’s provost and executive vice-president, Dr. Minato was appointed as the 27th president in October, 2020. His main interest is immunology, a field in which he has published approximately 220 scientific papers throughout his career. In 2002, he invented PD-1 checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy with Dr. Tasuku Honjo.

Senior Global Advisor, Kyoto Institute of Philosophy/Professor and Chair in Epistemology, Modern, and Contemporary Philosophy, Director of the International Centre for Philosophy, Director of the Center for Science and Thought, University of Bonn

Markus GABRIEL

Markus Gabriel (born 1980) studied in Bonn, Heidelberg, Lisbon, and New York.
He is one of the world’s most prominent representatives of New Realism in philosophy.
At just 29, he became the youngest full professor of philosophy in Germany, having already served as a tenure-track professor at New York’s New School for Social Research since 2008.
Since 2009, he has held the Chair in Epistemology, Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the University of Bonn. He has served as Director of the International Center for Philosophy since 2012.
In 2017, he founded the Center for Science and Thought together with colleagues from physics. This center facilitates interdisciplinary exchange between philosophy, science, and technology in order to find productive and sustainable solutions to the most pressing questions of our time. In this context, he is Principle Investigator of a project on Desirable Digitalization, which provides a new framework for thinking about AI.
His best-selling books include Why the World Doesn’t Exist (Polity),I Am Not a Brain: Philosophy of Mind for the 21st Century (Polity), The Meaning of Thought (Polity), and Moral Progress in Dark Times: Universal Values for the 21st Century (Polity).

Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

Noburu NOTOMI

Noburu Notomi, born in Tokyo in 1965, is Professor of Philosophy, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo. He served as Dean of the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Letters from April 2023 to March 2025. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2024.

He has received his B.A and M.A in Philosophy from the University of Tokyo, and his Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Cambridge in 1995. He taught at Kyushu University and Keio University before joining the University of Tokyo, and was invited to give lectures in many universities inside and outside Japan.

As the President of the International Plato Society (2007-2010), he organized the IX Symposium Platonicum, at Keio University in 2010. He had given over seventy papers at various international conferences and seminars, including the Special Session of the 2400 Anniversary of Plato’s Academy at XXIII World Congress of Philosophy (FISP, Athens, August 2013). He is currently President of the Philosophical Association of Japan, President of Philosophical Society, and Representative Secretary of Greek Philosophy Seminar, in Japan.

He published a dozen of monographs, over a hundred articles on Ancient Philosophy in Japanese and English, and a few Japanese translations of Plato and Aristotle. His publications include The Unity of Plato’s Sophist: between the sophist and the philosopher (Cambridge University Press, 1999; Japanese version, Nagoya University Press, 2002; Catalan Translation, 2024), Who is the Sophist? (Japanese, Jinbun-shoin, 2007; Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities), and A History of Greek Philosophy (Chikuma Shobo, 2021; Watsuji Tetsuro Cultural Award). He co-edited with Luc Brisson, Dialogue on Plato’s Politeia (Republic): selected papers from the Ninth Symposium Platonicum (Academia Verlag, 2013).

In recent years, together with several Japanese scholars, he has promoted “World Philosophy”. His major works in this field are An Introduction to World Philosophy (Chikuma Shinsho, 2024) and A History of World Philosophy (co-edited, 9 volumes, Chikuma Shinsho, 2020).

President, The University of Tokyo

Dr. Teruo FUJII

Dr. Teruo Fujii is the 31st President of the University of Tokyo (UTokyo). Prior to taking the President’s office in April 2021, he was the Executive Vice President in charge of finance and external relations for the university. He also served as the Director General of the Institute of Industrial Sciences (IIS) of the university from 2015 to 2018.
He received his Ph.D. in engineering from UTokyo in 1993 and held research positions at IIS and RIKEN prior to becoming a professor of IIS in 2007.
Dr. Fujii was an advisor to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) from 2005 to 2007, the co-director of LIMMS-CNRS/IIS, a joint research laboratory between CNRS of France, and IIS, from 2007 to 2014, and the President of the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS) from 2017 to 2019. He held the position of an Executive Member (part-time) of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan from March 2021 to February 2024.
Dr. Fujii’s research specializes in applied microfluidics systems and underwater technology.

President, Tokyo University of the Arts

Katsuhiko Hibino

Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1958.

Began artistic activities while studying at Tokyo University of the Arts in the early 1980s, combining social media and art.

He later participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennales in Japan and abroad, including the Sydney Biennale and the Venice Biennale, actively engaging in a wide range of cross-disciplinary activities that leveraged the unique characteristics of different regions.

Currently, he is the Director of the Gifu Prefectural Museum of Art and a professor at Kumamoto City Museum of Art.

Since 1995, he has been promoting educational research that explores the possibilities of new artistic expression in contemporary society.

In 2022, he became the President of Tokyo University of the Arts, where he continues to conduct and implement research on “living art”—an approach that investigates the potential of art in today’s society, including collaboration with companies and local communities.

Distinguished Professor, Department of Systems Innovation, The University of Osaka

Hiroshi Ishiguro

Hiroshi Ishiguro received a Ph. D. from Osaka University, Japan in 1991. He is currently Professor of Department of Systems Innovation at Osaka University, Visiting Director of Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Project Manager of MOONSHOT R&D Project, Thematic Project Producer of EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, and CEO of AVITA, Inc. His research interests are interactive robotics, avatar, and android science. Geminoid is an avatar android that is a copy of himself. In 2011, he won the Osaka Cultural Award. In 2015, he received the Prize for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He was also awarded the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award in Dubai in 2015. Tateisi Award in 2020, and honorary doctorate of Aarhus university in 2021.

Professor at the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Engineering, Department of Technology Management for Innovation

Yutaka Matsuo

Graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1997 and earned a Ph.D. in Engineering in 2002. He has held research positions at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and served as a visiting researcher at Stanford University. Since 2007, he has been an associate professor, and since 2019, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering. His research specializes in artificial intelligence, deep learning, and web mining. He has served as the chairman of the Japan Deep Learning Association since 2017, an outside director of SoftBank Group Corporation since 2019, an expert member of the Council for Achieving New Capitalism and the chair of the AI Strategy Conference since 2023, the chair of the AI Institutional Study Group since 2024, and a board director of the AI Robot Association since 2024.

Director, Executive Chairman, Representative Executive Officer Hitachi, Ltd.

Toshiaki HIGASHIHARA

Date of Birth February 16, 1955

Academic Background
September, 1990 Master of Science in Computer Science, Boston University
March, 1977 Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Tokushima University

Business Experience
April, 2022 Director, Executive Chairman, Representative Executive Officer
June, 2021 Director, Representative Executive Officer, Executive Chairman & CEO
May, 2021 Director, Representative Executive Officer, Executive Chairman, President & CEO
April, 2016 Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO
June, 2014 Director, Representative Executive Officer, President & COO
April, 2014 Representative Executive Officer, President & COO
April, 2013 Senior Vice President and Executive Officer, President & CEO of Infrastructure Systems Group and Infrastructure Systems Company
April, 2010 Representative Executive Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hitachi Plant Technologies, Ltd.
April, 2008 President, Hitachi Power Europe GmbH
April, 2007 Vice President and Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer of Power Systems Group
April, 2006 Corporate Officer, Chief Operating Officer of Information & Telecommunication Systems Group
January, 2006 Corporate Officer, General Manager of Information & Control Systems Division, Information & Telecommunication Systems Group
October, 2001 General Manager of Public Utility and Energy Industry Information Systems Division, Information & Control Systems Division, System Solutions Group
August, 2000 Senior Manager of Public Utility and Energy Industry Information Systems Design Department, Information & Control Systems Division, Power & Industrial Systems Group
April, 1999 Senior Manager of Transportation Systems Design Department, Omika Industrial Systems Division, Power & Industrial System Group
April, 1977 Joined Hitachi, Ltd.

Professor of Ethics, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University

Satoshi Kodama

Institution: Kyoto University Affiliation: Graduate School of Letters, Department of Ethics Position: Professor
E-mail: kodama.satoshi.4v@kyoto-u.ac.jp

Working Experience
•2022.04 up to now: Professor at the Department of Ethics at Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters
•2012.10 - 2022.03: Associate Professor at the Department of Ethics at Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters
•2007.04 - 2012.09: Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine
•2003.03 - 2007.03: Assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine

Education:
•1997.03 BA in Philosophy, Kyoto University
•1999.03 MA in Letters, Kyoto University
•2006.01 PhD in Letters, Kyoto University

Research Keywords: Ethics, Bioethics, Utilitarianism

Research interests:
Moral theory (utilitarianism); Moral methodology (the role of intuition in moral reasoning); End-of-life issues; Resource allocation; Public health ethics.

Research achievements (in the past 5 years):
•Satoshi Kodama. “International Collaborative Research on Ethical and Legal Issues in End-of-Life Care in East Asia.” (research project,2018~2025);
•Satoshi Kodama. “Archiving the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues in Pandemic Responses Towards Building an Infectious-Disease-Resilient Society.” (research project, 2020~2025);

Publications and Lectures in Japanese
•Satoshi Kodama. The Ethics of Prevention, Minerva Shobo,2023. (publication);
•Satoshi Kodama. Kyoto-University-Style Clinical Ethics Manual, 2023 (edited work);
•Satoshi Kodama,Covid-19 and Ethics, Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2022 (publication)
•Satoshi Kodama, Practical Ethics, Keiso Shobo,2020 (publication)
•Satoshi Kodama. On Moral Progress: The Decline and Revival of Progress Talk, Philosophy, 2023.74 (2023): 22-30. (academic paper)
•Satoshi Kodama, Recent Issues in Medical Ethics—Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic. in the 50th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine, 2023.03.02 (invited lecture)
•Satoshi Kodama, The COVID-19 Pandemic and Two Ethical Perspectives. in the 34th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Bioethics.2022.11.20(invited lecture)

Publications in English
•Ozeki-Hayashi, Reina, Futoshi Iwata, Satoshi Kodama, and Miho Tanaka, 'Guideline-Based Approach to End-of-Life Care Decisions in Japan: Practice, Regulation and the Place of Advance Directives', in Advance Directives Across Asia: A Comparative Socio-Legal Analysis, ed. by Daisy Cheung and Michael Dunn (Cambridge University Press, 2023), pp. 243-61(academic paper)
•Satoshi Kodama, 'Ethical Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Japanese Perspective', Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25 (2023); (academic paper)
•Satoshi Kodama,Campbell M, Tanaka M, et al. Understanding Japan's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Medical Ethics 2022;48:173; (academic paper)
•Tanaka, Miho, Satoshi Kodama, Ilhak Lee, and Richard Huxtable. Forgoing life-sustaining treatment-a comparative analysis of regulations in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and England, BMC Medical Ethics, 21(1),2020, 1-15; (academic paper)
•Tanaka, Miho, and Satoshi Kodama, Ethical Issues Around the Withdrawal of Dialysis Treatment in Japan, Asian Bioethics Review, 12(1), 2020, 51-57; (academic paper)

Chairperson and President, Shizenkan University Graduate School of Leadership and Innovation (Shizenkan) Founder, Institute for Strategic Leadership (ISL)

Dr. Tomo NODA

Dr. Tomo Noda is the founder of ISL and Shizenkan,Tokyo-based educational institutions dedicated to the development of next-generation leaders with the willpower, character, and creativity necessary to catalyze social and business innovation. Formerly, he was a faculty member of the London Business School (1996-1997), INSEAD in France (1997-2000), INSEAD ASIA in Singapore (2001-2003), and SIMI in Denmark (1996-2005) where he taught organizational strategy and transformational leadership to MBAs and executives. At INSEAD, he won a best teacher’s award for three consecutive years.

In 2001, Dr. Noda came back to Japan and established his own educational institution, ISL, with the support of around 300 top corporate executives, management professionals, and social leaders.
Since then, over 2,400 corporate managers and social entrepreneurs have graduated from ISL’s flagship whole-person leadership programs. Among graduates are CEOs of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fujitsu, Mitsui & Co., Hitachi, Chugai Pharmaceuticals, Shiseido, Kokuyo, Japan IBM, Recruit Holdings, Misumi Holdings, TOTO, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Komatsu, Hakuhodo DY Group, Digital Holdings, Seven Eleven Japan to name a few.

By leveraging the resources and networks of ISL, he then launched Shizenkan University, officially approved by Japan’s Ministry of Education, in 2018. Shizenkan offers a unique executive MBA program, both in Japanese and in English, which capitalizes on the strengths of Western business and design school approaches, liberal arts education, and Asian tradition of self-reflection. Shizenkan aims to be a catalyst for change in the global management leadership education paradigm, and leads a global leadership development project, closely working with IESE Business School (Spain), School of Inspired Leadership (India), Oxford Business School (UK), National University of Singapore Business School (Singapore), Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil), and other 15 partners in the five continents.

Dr. Noda holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Tokyo, a master’s degree in science in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in business administration (business policy) from Harvard University.

President & CEO, U.S.-Japan Council

Audrey Yamamoto

Audrey Yamamoto currently serves as the President & CEO of the U.S.-Japan Council. Prior to joining the Council, Audrey served as the Chief Operating Officer of The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). Founded in response to the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence, TAAF is reversing the longstanding under-investment in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community by addressing the root causes of hate and discrimination.

She has more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors where she has consistently helped organizations maximize their impact while building a collaborative, team-oriented culture.

Prior to joining TAAF, Audrey served as the President and Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Fund, the only foundation dedicated to supporting the San Francisco Bay Area’s most vulnerable Asians and Pacific Islanders. Under her leadership, the Fund reached historic levels of fundraising and grantmaking while launching new programs that increased the Fund’s visibility. Previously, Audrey served as the Executive Director of the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, where she led the organization through a strategic rebranding initiative that yielded unprecedented growth.

Audrey graduated from the University of California San Diego with a degree in economics and has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA with an emphasis in nonprofit management and entrepreneurship. She was selected to be part of the 2023 Japanese American Leadership Delegation, a program funded by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is an inductee of the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame, an alumnus of Leadership California, and recipient of the Asian Business League’s Leadership Award.

Audrey is a fourth-generation Japanese American who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her family. Audrey and her husband both have played Japanese league basketball throughout their youth, and have enjoyed watching their two sons continue the tradition.

Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

Kaori Karasawa

Born in Kyoto Prefecture. Completed the master's program at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, and the doctoral program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ph.D. in Psychology. After serving as an associate professor at the Faculty of Information Culture, Nagoya University, she became a professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo. She is the program director of the JST/RISTEX "Responsible Innovation with Conscience and Agility" and the sub-program director of the third phase SIP project "Construction of Circular Economy Systems." She is a former president of the Japanese Society of Social Psychology and the Japanese Group Dynamics Association. President, The Japanese Psychological Association. Her research interests are the mechanisms of information processing related to self, others, and social events, and the application of social psychological knowledge and methods to solve actual social and ethical issues.

Professor, Kyoto University of Advanced Science/ Visiting Professor, Hitotsubashi University Business School

Takashi Nawa

Graduated from Tokyo University (Law) and obtained an MBA at Harvard Business School (Baker Scholar). Worked in Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo/New York) for 11 years.

Served as a director for McKinsey & Company for 20 years engaged in consultation work. Also held posts as the Practice Leader of the Asia-Pacific region in the automotive and manufacturing sectors, and the Practice Leader of the Japan office in the digital sectors. Works as a consultant for companies in various industries across Japan, Asia, and the US, supporting various projects such as next-generation growth strategies and companywide transformation. Served as a Senior Advisor for Boston Consulting Group for 6 years, and currently acting as a senior advisor for Accenture, Interbrand and Consumer Affairs Agency.

Appointed as professor at Hitotsubashi Business School in June 2010, and at Kyoto University of Advanced Science in April 2022, teaching “Corporate Strategy” , “Entrepreneurship”. “Innovation”, “Creating Shared Value”, “Digital Transformation”, “Global Management” and “Change Management”. Organizing and leading “CSV Forum” with executives of nearly 30 leading Japanese companies since 2014.

Appointed as a board member at Denso (-2019), Fast Retailing (~2022), Ajinomoto、SOMPO Holdings, NEC Capital Solutions and Asahi Shinbun.

Advocates the IPR (Industry Process Redesign) method, announcing in collaboration with METI the course of structural change within six industries, together with the economic impacts. Promotes market evolution and cross-industrial creation in various industries and has supported several M&A and alliance projects.

Has authored many books and articles such as “Purpose Management”, “Management Innovation”, “Textbook of Change Management”, “Schumpeter”, ”Problem Solving and Value Creation Formula”, “Global Growth Giants”, “CSV Management”, “Familiarity Advantage”, “Next-Generation Growth Strategy”, “X Management Model”, “Evolution of Strategy”’, and “High Performing Manufacturers Sell Services”

President and CEO, Institute of Science Tokyo

Naoto OHTAKE

https://www.isct.ac.jp/en/001/about/overview/board/naoto-ohtake

Naoto Ohtake is president and chief executive officer at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo).

Before his current position, Ohtake was director-general of the Institute of Innovative Research (IIR) and director of the Organization for Fundamental Research at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) from 2022 to 2024. He was also an IIR professor from 2018 to 2024.

Ohtake earned his bachelor’s, master's, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from Tokyo Tech in 1986, 1988, and 1992, respectively. From 1989 to 2000, he was with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science at Tokyo Tech, first as an assistant professor, then as an associate professor. During this period, he was also a visiting associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Mechanical Engineering from 1995 to 1996.

From 2000 to 2006, Ohtake was an associate professor at Tokyo Tech’s Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering. In 2006, he joined the Department of Materials, Physics, and Energy Engineering at Nagoya University as an associate professor. He returned to Tokyo Tech’s Department of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering in 2009, where he became a professor the following year. He also served as advisor to the Tokyo Tech president from 2012 to 2015.

Ohtake was Tokyo Tech’s vice president for research promotion from 2015 to 2017. During this period, he was also named as a professor at the School of Engineering. From 2017 to 2018, Ohtake served as Tokyo Tech’s vice president for research development. He was also associate director of the Laboratory for Design of Social Innovation Global Networks (DLab) from 2018 to 2024, and director of the Laboratory for Future Interdisciplinary Research of Science and Technology at IIR from 2020 to 2022.

Ohtake's main field of interest is surface engineering and science, including chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition of hard carbon films and their application to industrial uses.

Professor and Director, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo

Takahiro NAKAJIMA

nakajima@ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Professor of Chinese philosophy and world philosophy at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, the University of Tokyo, Japan. Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, and Chairperson of the University of Tokyo Press.

Graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo. Withdrew from the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Humanities, University of Tokyo. After serving as Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, became Associate Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia in 2012, and Professor at the same institute in 2014. Assumed current position in 2023.

He is currently interested in Chinese philosophy and Japanese philosophy from the viewpoint of world philosophy which goes beyond west-centered philosophy and asks the commitment to the universal from local philosophies, by elaborating indigenous concepts.

His publications include Re-reading of Japanese Modern Thoughts: Philosophy (University of Tokyo Press, 2023), History of Chinese Philosophy (Chikuma-shobo, 2022), Philosophy in Crisis: Discourses of Imagination (University of Tokyo Press, 2021), History of World Philosophy (Eds. Kunitake Ito, Shiro Yamauchi, Noburu Notomi, and Takahiro Nakajima, nine volumes, Chikuma-shobo, 2020) etc.

Chairman & CEO, Suntory Holdings Limited

Tak Niinami

Tak Niinami is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Suntory Holdings, one of the world's leading consumer products companies with operations across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Tak spent the first 20 years of his career at Mitsubishi Corporation, where he held several management positions and founded Sodex Corporation (now LEOC Co.), a hospital food service joint venture between Mitsubishi and Sodexo of France. He ultimately took the company public in 1999. Prior to joining Suntory in 2014, Tak was the CEO of Lawson, Inc., where he increased revenue and operating profits for 12 consecutive years, transforming Lawson into one of Asia’s major convenience store operators.

Outside of Suntory, Tak has served since 2014 on the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy—a key advisory body to the Prime Minister of Japan that shapes the nation’s economic and fiscal policies. This makes him the longest-serving business leader in this role. Additionally, he represents Japan’s corporate leadership as Chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).

Tak is also a Co-Chair of the Trilateral Commission, a member of the Leadership Council of the World Economic Forum, and serves on the Global Board of Advisors of the Council on Foreign Affairs. An active member of the Asia Business Council, Tak previously served as its Chairman. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council and The Business Council of the United States. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Keio University and studied at Stanford University as an exchange student during his junior year. Tak received his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

NTT Corporation
Vice President Office of Chief Executive Fellow
Director, Kyoto Philosophical Institute (General Incorporated Association)
The Ph.D （Doctor of Engineering）

Kumiko Oomori

Career
April 1998, Joined Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
July 2003, Worked at NTT DATA Corporation, R&D Headquarters
July 2008, Human Resources Development, NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group
October 2017, Software Innovation Center, NTT Information Sharing Laboratory Group
July 2021, Director, Produce Group, Research and Development Planning Department, NTT
June 2023, Vice President of R&D Marketing Division, NTT

Research Topics
She has specialized in artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis since she was a graduate student. At NTT corporation, she has been involved in the development of voice dialogue systems at the research laboratory. In her HR and training roles, she has been involved in training software developers, established the Software Innovation Center, the company's 13th research laboratory, and leads a group of software experts. She is also involved in promoting internal digital transformation with data.
In response to the rise of GAFA, she started to study philosophy to criticize the means of centralized system development and find a better way. In philosophy, she is currently researching human rights in virtual societies.

External Committee Members and Organizations (mainly):
Director, NTT Comware Corporation (August 2023 - June 2024)
Director, NTT Technocross Service Corporation (July 2021 - March 2024)
Director, Kyoto Philosophical Institute (General Incorporated Association) (June 2023 - Present)
Part-time Lecturer, Chiba Institute of Technology (April 2019 - March 2023)

Representative Director President, Senior Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Circulation, The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings Representative Director Chairman of the Board, The Yomiuri Shimbun Representative Director Executive Chairman at Nippon Television Holdings Owner,Yomiuri Giants

Toshikazu YAMAGUCHI

Date of Birth:March 4, 1957

Education:Graduated from the Political Science and Economics Waseda University in 1979

Professional Background:
1979 Joined The Yomiuri Shimbun and Staff writer at Utsunomiya Bureau and City News Department
1998 eputy Editor, City News Department and Deputy Manager, Legal Affairs Office at Yomiuri Shimbun
2002 Manager, Legal Department at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings
2007 Chief, President’s Office at The Yomiuri Holdings Corporate Communication at The Yomiuri Shimbun
2009 Corporate Officer, President’s Office Chief, Compliance at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings
2011 Director Chief President’s Office, Compliance at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings Managing Director, Corporate Communications, Compliance, and General Manager, Committee on Construction of The New Head Office Building at The Yomiuri Shimbun Standing Auditor at Yomiuri Giants
2012 Director, Corporate Strategy Headquarters Chief Officer, Corporate Communications at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings Senior Managing Director, Corporate Communications, Media at The Yomiuri Shimbun
2014 Senior Managing Director, Chief Officer, Corporate Strategy Headquarters, Corporate Communications at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings Senior Managing Director, Real Estate Management, Corporate Communications, Media at The Yomiuri Shimbun
2015 Exective Officer, Tokyo Operations at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings Representative Director President at The Yomiuri Shimbun
2016 Representative Director President at The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings
2017 Representative Director President Circulation, The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings
2018 Owner,Yomiuri Giants
2022 Representative Director Executive Chairman at Nippon Television Holdings
2023 Representative Director Chairman of the Board, The Yomiuri Shimbun
2025 Representative Director President ,Senior Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Circulation, The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings

Honorary, Professor of, Linguistics and English, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Rukmini Bhaya Nair

Rukmini Bhaya Nair is Professor (Hon.) of Linguistics and English at the India Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD). Currently Global Professorial Fellow at QMUL, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Antwerp for her contributions to narrative theory. Author of 10 books and around 150 articles, her widely acclaimed academic books include: Lying on the Postcolonial Couch: The Idea of Indifference; Narrative Gravity: Conversation, Cognition, Culture; and Poetry in a Time of Terror: Essays in the Postcolonial Preternatural (Oxford University Press, 2002, 2003, 2009). Her most recent book is the reference volume (co-edited with Peter de Souza) Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020). Her most recent article is “Archewriting: The Symbolic Evolution of Script and Narrative” in The Oxford handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution (2024). Nair’s research interests lie at the intersection of literary, linguistics and cognitive studies, including AI. Her work attempts to bring together what we know of the human mind in its evolutionary aspect and its everyday patterns of behavior with what we know about current cultural patterns of social inclusion and exclusion on the Indian subcontinent and worldwide. Nair writes widely on social issues in national and international popular print and electronic media, and has contributed regularly to forums such as Mary Tully’s BBC Program ‘Something Understood’ and ABC Australia’s ‘The Books Show’ as well as an NDTV Opinion Column. In addition, she is an award-winning poet who has published three volumes of poetry with Penguin: The Hyoid Bone, The Ayodhya Cantos and Yellow Hibiscus. The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry (2014) writes that her work “widely admired… for its postmodern approach to lyrical meaning and feminine identity”. Her writings, creative and critical, have been included on the syllabi of Chicago, Delhi. Harvard, Kent, Toronto and other universities. Forthcoming books in 2025-2026 are: Deception: Mind, Metaphor, Memes and the Mimicry Machine; In the Name of Rushdie: Postcolonialism, Prophesy and the Platonic Censors and Postcolonial Pragmatics, as well as a book of poems titled Shataka: The Quarantined Tongue. Nair’s writings, creative and critical, have been included on the syllabi of Chicago, Delhi, Harvard, Kent, Toronto and other universities. She says she does research in linguistics for the same reason that she writes poetry - to discover the limits and possibilities of language.

Archbishop (Titular of Belcastro), Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church

Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi

Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, PhD in theology, obtained at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He taught systematic theology at the Faculty of Theology in Milan and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He taught philosophy at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, in Milan. He has published several in the fields of theology and anthropology. From September 2022 to March 2025 he was Secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education. He is currently the Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, in Vatican.

Full Professor of Philosophy, University of Turin

Maurizio Ferraris

https://maurizioferraris.eu/

Maurizio Ferraris (Torino 1956) wrote more than seventy books that have been translated into several languages. Among the last ones, Documanità. Filosofia del mondo nuovo (Laterza) and Webfare. A Manifesto for Digital Well-Being (2024). Full Professor of Philosophy, he is the President of the Labont - Center for Ontology. He is columnist for ‘Corriere della sera’ and for ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’. He is also the president of “Scienza Nuova“, an institute of advanced studies - dedicated to Umberto Eco and uniting the University and the Polytechnic of Turin - aimed at planning a sustainable future, both from a cultural and from a political point of view.

Maurizio Ferraris is advisory member of the Center for Advanced Studies of South East Europe (Rijeka) and of the Internationales Zentrum Für Philosophie NRW. He is doctor honoris causa in Humanities at the University of Flores (Buenos Aires) and at Univesity of Pécs. He has been Fellow of Käte-Hamburger Kolleg “Recht als Kultur” (Bonn) and Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America (Columbia University, New York) and of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. He has also been Directeur d’études of the Collège International de Philosophie and Visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris) as well as other European and American Universities. He is the Director of ‘Rivista di Estetica’, and member of the committee of ‘Critique’, of ‘Círculo Hermenéutico editorial’ and of the ‘Revue francophone d’esthétique’.
Among his books that have appeared in English we quote: History of Hermeneutics (Humanities Press, 1996); A Taste for the Secret (with Jacques Derrida - Blackwell, 2001); Documentality or Why it is Necessary to Leave Traces (Fordham UP, 2012); Goodbye Kant! (SUNY UP, 2013); Where Are You? An Ontology of the Cell Phone (Fordham UP, 2014); Manifesto of New Realism (SUNY UP, 2014); Introduction to New Realism (Bloomsbury, 2014); Positive Realism (Zer0 Books, 2015); Learning to Live: Six Essays on Marcel Proust (Brill - 2020); Doc-humanity (2022, Mohr Siebeck) and Hysteresis (forthcoming, University of Edimburgh Press).
In his long career, Maurizio Ferraris has determined a new course of thought and studies in at least six areas: history of hermeneutics, aesthetics as theory of perception, social ontology (the theory of Documentality), metaphysics (he has been the founder of New Realism, the most prominent philosophical movement of the new millennium), technological anthropology (the theory of Dochumanity), and philosophy of economics (Webfare as Digital Welfare). In 2005 he wrote the first philosophical book on the mobile phone: Where Are You? Ontology of the Mobile Phone.
See Ferraris’ Identity page on WorldCat, the Deutsche National Bibliothek, and perlentaucher.

Emeritus Professor, Rhodes University

Michael Neocosmos

Dr. Michael Neocosmos is Emeritus Professor in Humanities at Rhodes University in South Africa and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute in the United States. He was Director of the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University (UHURU) from 2014 to 2017 and a member of the African Potentials Project under the direction of Professors Itaru Ohta and Motoji Matsuda at The Center for African Area Studies of Kyoto University. He is the author of many articles and books on development, politics, philosophy, and sociology with reference to Africa. In particular, he is the author of From Foreign Natives to Native foreigners: explaining xenophobia in South Africa (Codesria, 2010) and Thinking Freedom in Africa: toward a theory of emancipatory politics (Wits University Press, 2016). The latter book was awarded the Frantz Fanon Prize by the Caribbean Philosophical Association in 2017. His latest book is entitled Beyond the Neocolonial: Africa and the Dialectics of Human Emancipation due to be published by Daraja Press later this year (https://darajapress.com/publication/dialectics-of-emancipation).

Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy, Harvard University

Mathias Risse

Mathias Risse is Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy and Director of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University. His research is primarily in political philosophy and philosophy of technology, and he is currently at work on a book on Indigenous philosophies tentatively called Reckoning and Renewal: Indigenous Philosophy and Global Crisis. In political philosophy his work has addressed questions of global justice ranging from human rights, inequality, taxation, trade, and immigration to climate change, obligations to future generations. In the philosophy of technology Risse has recently offered a comprehensive account of political theory of the digital age. He has also worked on questions in ethics, decision theory and 19th century German philosophy, especially Nietzsche. He is the author or co-author of six books, including the 2012 On Global Justice and most recently the 2023 Political Theory of the Digital Age: Where Artificial Intelligence Might Take Us.

Docent, University of Helsinki

Anna-Mari Wallenberg

Dr Anna-Mari Wallenberg is a Philosopher of Cognitive Sciences & AI at the University of Helsinki. Wallenberg studies the societal consequences of AI from a multidisciplinary perspective, and in recent years her research topics have varied from the philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence to the cognitive dynamics of human-machine interaction; from the ethical and regulatory issues of AI to the nature of computational explanations.

Wallenberg currently leads the AI DEMOC project, a Strategic Research Council of Finland funded consortium project investigating the impacts of AI on democracy, including the effect of generative AI and hallucinations on information environments, communication and cognition in the age of AI-enabled misinformation, studying how synthetic speech can be designed to be transparent, trustworthy, and supporting human interaction, and more. She was previously the lead instructor of the University of Helsinki’s Ethics of AI MOOC and has worked as a senior specialist on ethical and societal aspects of AI at the Ministry of Finance of Finland.

Professor, Graduate School of Management and Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University

Asli M. Colpan

Asli M. Colpan is Professor of Corporate Strategy at the Graduate School of Management and Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University. She is also the Assistant Executive Vice President (for Research) of Kyoto University. Previously, she was the Alfred Chandler Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School, and visiting scholar at Harvard University and MIT. She was awarded the Tachibana Prize for the most outstanding female scholar at Kyoto University in 2010.

Her research interests include corporate strategy, corporate governance, business history, and especially the evolution of large enterprises in developed and emerging economies. Her work has been published in such journals as Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Business History and Corporate Governance: An International Review. She is also the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Business Groups, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010; Business Groups in the West: Origins, Evolution, and Resilience, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018; and Business, Ethics and Institutions: The Evolution of Turkish Capitalism in Global Perspectives, 2020.

She is currently the Editor of Corporate Governance: An International Review and Consulting Editor of Journal of International Business Studies. She also sits on the boards of Kansai Paint, Sumitomo Electric Industries and Sumitomo Rubber Industries.

Stephen E. Bachand University Professor of Business Administration, University of Virginia

R. Edward Freeman

R. Edward Freeman is Bachand University Professor, Olsson Professor, and Academic Director of the Institute for Business in Society at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. He is best known for his award winning book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Pitman, 1984; and reprinted by Cambridge University Press in 2010). He has received seven honorary doctorates (Doctor Honoris Causa) from: Radboud University; Universidad Pontificia Comillas; the Hanken School of Economics; Tampere University; Sherbrooke University; Leuphana University; and HEC Paris for his work on stakeholder theory and business ethics. He hosts The Stakeholder Podcast, via Stakeholder Media, LLC.

Chief Executive, News Corp

Robert Thomson

https://newscorp.com/news-corp-leadership/

Robert James Dell'Oro Thomson is chief executive officer of News Corporation. News Corp, headquartered in New York, has global operations across a range of media, including: news and information services, digital real estate services and book publishing.

Mr. Thomson assumed his current role in January 2013, having served as editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal from May 2008. He directed the global news operations of the print and digital Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, with an international news staff of over 2,000 journalists in more than 80 bureaus worldwide.
Mr. Thomson’s editorial leadership and Dow Jones’ commitment to quality journalism fueled growth and innovation, with The Wall Street Journal becoming the largest circulation newspaper in the U.S. The Journal expanded its content and added a host of sections to complement its core of unrivalled business and finance coverage. The company’s expansion across content was complemented by a growth across geographies and devices, with numerous digital content and video offerings and local-language Web sites in Europe and Asia, reaching tens of millions of users worldwide.

Before joining Dow Jones in December 2007, Mr. Thomson was editor of The Times of London where he presided over a significant expansion of its readership in print and on the Web - the audience of the Times Online grew from less than 1 million monthly to almost 13 million during his editorship. Prior to that, he was editor of the U.S. edition of the Financial Times taking prime editorial responsibility for the FT Group’s ambitious drive into the U.S. market, where the newspaper trebled its sales to almost 150,000. For his work in building the FT’s operations, in print and online, he was named as U.S. Business Journalist of the Year in 2001 by the influential trade journal TJFR.

Mr. Thomson had been editor of the Weekend FT and assistant editor of the Financial Times, orchestrating a successful redesign of the Weekend FT in late 1996 - that edition became the fastest-growing newspaper in the U.K. market during 1997. He also oversaw the evolution of “How to Spend It” magazine into an award-winning monthly. From 1994 to 1996, he was the FT’s foreign news editor in London, leading the paper’s extensive network of correspondents. Mr. Thomson had been a correspondent himself in Tokyo (1989-1994), where he witnessed the rise and fall of the “bubble economy,” and in Beijing (1985-1989), where he reported on the country’s economic and social reforms, and the crushing of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.

Mr. Thomson has been a journalist since early 1979, when he joined The Herald in Melbourne, working as a copyboy and a finance and general affairs reporter before becoming the paper’s Sydney correspondent. In 1983, he was hired by the Sydney Morning Herald as a senior feature writer and, two years later, was appointed to a Beijing bureau then shared by the Sydney paper and the Financial Times.
He is the author of The Judges: A Portrait of the Australian Judiciary (Allen & Unwin) and co-author of The Chinese Army (Weldon Owen). He edited a collection of satirical writing titled True Fiction (Penguin Books).
Mr. Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, near Echuca, in southern Australia, and is married with two sons.

President & CEO, Ericsson

Börje Ekholm

President & CEO of the Ericsson Group since 2017

Previous work experience and other information: CEO of Patricia Industries, a division within Investor AB (2015-2017). President and CEO of Investor AB (2005-2015). Chairman of Trimble Inc. Holds honorary Doctorate at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Member of the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum Digital Communication Governors. Member of the Board of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce New York.

Professor, The University of Pennsylvania

Fritz Breithaupt

Fritz Breithaupt is both a humanities scholar and a cognitive scientist at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) who works on narratives, empathy, and aesthetics. His books on narrative thinking and empathy have been translated into many languages. He runs the Experimental Humanities Laboratory. His latest book, The Narrative Brain (Yale UP, 2025), won the official prize of Science Book of the Year in Austria. Some of his other books focus on empathy, including The Dark Sides of Empathy (Cornell UP, 2019) and a book on Goethe. He publishes in both science and humanities journals, including PNAS, Scientific Reports, DVJS, and Critical Inquiry. He also frequently is in the press, including NPR, BBC, Der Spiegel, and Die Zeit. His next larger project is a book on how we make experiences as humans, with a focus on first-time experiences, repeated experiences, and repeated experiences.

Program Lead, Science Anticipation Philosophy

Manuel Gustavo Isaac

A program lead in science anticipation philosophy at GESDA, Manuel Gustavo Isaac helps develop the philosophical foundations and framing of our anticipatory work and advance social sciences and humanities research integration into our science anticipation products.
With a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology from Paris Cité University and MA degrees in philosophy, linguistics, and logic from Paris Sorbonne Universities, his previous academic career spans several distinguished fellowships at leading institutions including the University of Zurich, St Andrews, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Geneva, as well as research and teaching positions at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University and Paris Diderot University. Combining technology ethics and metaphilosophy, with a particular focus on conceptual engineering applied to emerging sciences and technologies, his research has been published in top academic journals, presented at distinguished conferences worldwide, and translated for impact into many practitioner workshops, public science lectures, and scientific consultancies. His portfolio includes 5 grant-funded research projects as PI, 19 academic awards, 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and the development of practical tools such as a published methodology canvas and ethical-by-design workflow process.
Dr. Isaac is a member of the International Science Council's Global Roster of Experts, currently serves as a global expert in the Earth Institute's AI Ethics Task Force at Columbia University, and was a research group member at the Center for AI and Digital Policy in Washington. He is a founder of the Conceptual Engineering Network, and the creator of the Conceptual Engineering YouTube channel.

Founder, Honey Bee Network/Former Professor and Visiting Faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Anil K. Gupta

Professor Anil K Gupta is a visiting faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; after retiring in 2017, besides IIT Bombay and AcSIR. He is also the founder of Honey Bee Network, SRISTI.org, GIAN.org and Nifindia.org, Ph.D. (Management), MSc. Biochemical Genetics, Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS); Fellow, the World Academy of Art and Science, California; INSA; Hon Fellow, ISAE; CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow, 2018-21

Mission is to expand the global as well as local space for innovations from and for grassroots, link technological ideas in informal and formal STI sector; ensure recognition, respect and reward for creative communities, individuals, children and tech students; augmenting open innovations by individuals, institutions, corporations, and countries through frugal samvedansheel platforms. Unlocking institutional creativity through responsible innovations, support national/international strategic organizations and networks for making breakthroughs innovations;

He facilitated Festival of Innovation (2015-2017) and Festival of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (FINE) through NIFindia.org, hosted by the office of President of India at The President's House (2018). SITARE-GYTI awards & SRISTI GYTI awards given to bright technology students every year in collaboration with BIRAC, DBT till 2022; GYTI award continue. HBNCRIIA awards given by GIAN and HBN to outstanding innovation around the world and the country since 2021. Coordinated five International conferences on Creativity and Innovation at Grassroots-ICCIG (iccig.in 1997-2025) with the support of CMA, IIMA and other partners

Research interests: conservation and augmentation of biodiversity, building global value chain to get the grassroots and youthful creativity its due; promote originality and innovation at different levels through various platforms like techpedia.in, grid.undp.org.in, gian.org/databases; Public policy for inclusive development; He has pursued Shodhyatra, learning walk in every state of India at least once, some multiple times, covering more than 7000 km during 1998-2025 with Honey Bee Network volunteers in addition to with students of IIMA.

CV Sheshadri memorial lecture, 2024, invited address at convocation Kanpur University, Central University, Koraput, Tribal University, Chhattisgarh; Viacom, Endurance Technology, DHL, JCB, SAP Labs, ORACLE, CISCO, HP, GE Research Centre, Siemens, Volvo, Biocon Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Center, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Zydus Cadilla, JSW, D E Shaw investment firm, Tata Innovation Awards, ZEF, CGIAR, FAO, IFAD, World Bank, LBSNAA, IISc, ISI, IITs, JNU, Harvard, MIT Boston, UC Berekely, Davis; Cornell Univ., Indian Oil, Global IP Convention 2018, Barclays, Welcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, THSTI, NIPGR, NII, IIMs etc., apart from numerous top academic and public policy institutions worldwide.

His book, Grassroots Innovation: Mind on the margin are not marginal minds, New Delhi Penguin RandomHouse; 2016, http://www.amazon.in/Grassroots-Innovation-Minds-Margin-Marginal/dp/8184005873, received best Business Book Award at Tata Lit Live festival, Nov 20, 2016.

Positions: Member, Review committee of Biotech clusters, DRIIV, PSA office, 2023 continuing, Member, National Innovation Council, Chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister (2010-2013); Director, Dena Bank, 2006-09; Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship, IIMA (2003-2008); Chairperson, Ravi J Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation, IIMA, 1993-1994; Chairperson, Research and Publications, IIMA, 1990-92; Exec Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation (2000-2018); Coordinator, SRISTI and Secty., GIAN.

Teaching: PPIDI with Hon'ble Former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee jointly with Prof VS Chand, Globalising and Resurgent India through Innovative Transformation (GRIT) with Bharat Ratna Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India (2008-12), Shodhyatra (learning walk in Himalayan region), Strategic Management of Intellectual Property Rights (SMIPR), Indian Social and Political Environment (ISPE, 1995-2007), Design and Development of Development Organizations (DDDO, 1981-90), Economic Environment and Policy (1981-1994), "Understanding Creativity, Innovation, Knowledge Networks and Entrepreneurship (CINE), Introduction to Agriculture & Agri-Business Leadership. ISIKG (Institutions, social innovations and knowledge at grassroots), Meeting the unmet Needs through grassroots innovations, for doctoral scholars of CSIR labs, AcSIR with Dr Anamika Dey; MIIST (Management of Inclusive Innovations for Social Transformation also with Dr Dey for 91 UNDP acc labs in 115 countries.

Honours: Lifetime Achievement Award 2024, FICCI; CSIR Bhatnagar Fellowship 2018-21, Best Researcher award at IIMA, 2015, Humanistic Management Lifetime Achievement Award by the Humanistic Management Network, at the 73rd Annual meeting of the Academy of Management, USA, 2013; Ph.D Honoris Causa, San Martin de Porres University, October, Peru 2015; Doctor of Letters from Central University of Orissa, July, 2012; Hermes Award European Institute for Creative Strategies and Innovation, Paris, 2012; Padma Shri, 2004, a national civil award by The President of India; Adjudged as one of the fifty most influential people in the field of intellectual property rights around the world in 2003, Managing Intellectual Property 2003, Adjudged as one of the Star Personalities of Asia, Business Week, 2001, apart from several other national and international honours. Member of many governmental and corporate bodies, Prof. Gupta is a widely published author; also see some at https://gian.org/prof-anil-gupta-papers/ and anilg.sristi.org

Chairman of the Board, Udo Keller Foundation Forum Humanum

Cai Werntgen

Born in 1967.
Studied Philosophy, Religious Studies and Literature as well as Media Theory at the Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen and the Karlsruhe University of Design.
2003 Completion of the doctorate in the subject “Philosophy” with Peter Sloterdijk and Boris Groys. Since 2003 Chairman and Managing Director of the Udo Keller Foundation FORUM HUMANUM, Hamburg. In this function co-founder of the Forum Scientiarum and the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center at the University of Tübingen and the Verlag der Weltreligionen at Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin.
Lecturer for Philosophy & Aesthetics at the Karlsruhe University of Design 2003-2018. Author of numerous publications and books with a focus on contemporary philosophical diagnostics.

Selection:

Monographs:
1.Kehren, Martin Heidegger und Gotthard Günther - Europäisches Denken zwischen Ost und West, Fink, 2006
2.Szenen des Heiligen, Suhrkamp, Berlin, 2012
3.Heidegger after Duchamp - Skizzen einer Philosophie der Geste, Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2016

Articles / Essays
1.Neuro-Iconography - Anmerkungen zum Bildkult im Zeitalter bildgebender Verfahren - in: Mystik und Medien IV, Ingo Berensmeyer (Hg.), Fink, 2009
2.Die kybernetische Moderne als Friedhof der Mystik - in: Mystik und Medien III, Luca Di Blasi (Hg.), Fink, 2007
3.Apokalypse Now - Völker im Hyperraum - in: LETTRE International 55
4.Die Arena-Gesellschaft - in: LETTRE International 90
5.Denken am Nullpunkt der Geschichte - Notizen zur Philosophie Peter Sloterdijks - in: M. Jongen/S. v. Tuinen (Hg.), Vermessung des Ungeheuren, Fink, 2009

Associate Professor, University of Cape Coast

Husein Inusah

Husein Inusah, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Cape Coast Ghana. He earned his PhD from the University of Ghana in 2014 and received the 2015/16 University of Ghana Vice-Chancellor's Award for the Most Outstanding PhD Dissertation in the Humanities Category. Additionally, he was a Dissertation Completion Fellow at the University of Rochester during the 2013/14 academic year, where he studied under the renowned American epistemologist Richard Feldman. Prof. Inusah is a fellow of the African Humanities Program of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in the USA, an Iso Lomso Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa, and a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Institute for Advanced Study in Germany. Currently, he is researching the epistemology of decoloniality, the concept of rationality in traditional African political deliberations, indigenous knowledge systems, epistemic vices and their obstruction of knowledge, African philosophy, the infinitist notion of the regress of justification, and AI Ethics as well as the negative impact of intelligent technologies on the Global South.

Rector and Professor of philosophy, Tallinn University

Tõnu Viik

CURRICULUM VITAE
Born on July 12, 1968 in Jõhvi, Estonia.

Education
1998-2003 Emory University, Atlanta PhD (2003)
2001-2002 Humboldt Universität Berlin (Emory scholar)
2000-2001 Philipps Universität Marburg (Emory scholar)
1997-1998 University of Helsinki (SIMO scholar)
1986-1993 Moscow State University (diploma studies 5 years) Diploma (1993)
1978-1986 Nõmme Gymnasium
1975-1978 Jõhvi Gymnasiu

Career
2021 - Tallinn University Rector
2020 -...Tallinn University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
2015 - 2020 Tallinn University School of Humanities Director
2014 - 2015 Tallinn University Estonian Institute of Humanities Director
2007 - 2015 Tallinn University Estonian Institute of Humanities Professor of Philosophy
2004 - 2007 Estonian Institute of Humanities Rector
2003 - 2004 Estonian Institute of Humanities Professor of Philosophy
2002 - 2003 Lecturer - Emory University (Atlanta)
1999 - 2000 Study Assistent - Emory University (Atlanta)
1994 - 1998 Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities
1993 - 1994 Lecturer at the Tallinn University of Technology

Main research and teaching areas
My academic work has been focusing on the following fields: philosophy of culture and cultural theory, phenomenology, history of philosophy (primarily Plato, Aristoteles, Aquino Thomas, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Foucault), culture-dependent meaning formation, collective emotions, happiness, love and self-deception.
The list of research articles, titles of supervised theses and courses I have taught, and other relevant matter can be found in the Estonian Research Information System ETIS.

Public engagement and social activity
I have published opinion articles and essays on topics of my research, book reviews, forewords and epilogues, textbooks and study materials. I have also spoken in public debates and discussions, many of these concern higher education and the role of university in the society. I participated in the creation process of Tallinn University in 2005. I was one of the signatories to Charter 12 and participants in the Ice Cellar Initiative, and one of the authors of the initiative A Viable State (Elamisväärne Riik).

Professor of Political Theory and Governance University of Groningen

Andrej Zwitter

Andrej Zwitter is Professor of Political Theory and Governance and Director of Research, as well as a co-founder and former dean of the inter- and transdisciplinary branch Faculty Campus Fryslân at the University of Groningen. He earned his PhD in Legal Philosophy and International Law from the University of Graz in Austria and began teaching at the University of Groningen in 2008. Zwitter became a Professor of International Law and International Relations in 2012. Since 2017, he has served as Dean of Campus Fryslân, promoting interdisciplinary research and education. In 2023, he became Program Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE in Germany. He is the founding Director of the Data Research Centre (2017), the Cyan Centre on Climate Adaptation 2020), and the Centre on Innovation Technology and Ethics (2024). He specializes in ethics, technology, and society, and serves as Ethics Advisor to the EU Green Deal Data Spaces and as Senior Fellow at the Global Centre on Adaptation.Andrej earned his PhD in Law, Legal Philosophy, and International Law. His research foci include Big Data ethics, cyber governance, humanitarian action, and state of emergency politics. Andrej has also published extensively on subjects such as humanitarian action or just war and Meta-Science. He is passionate about understanding how modern technology affects society and how it can contribute to solving global challenges.

S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Wiebke Denecke

Wiebke Denecke is S. C. Fang Professor of Chinese Language and Culture and Professor of East Asian Literatures and Philosophies at MIT. She studies the literary and philosophical traditions of China, Japan and Korea, comparative studies of East Asia and the premodern world, world literature, the politics of cultural heritage and memory, and the transformation of the Humanities in an age of STEM.
Her books include The Dynamics of Masters Literature: Early Chinese Thought from Confucius to Han Feizi, Classical World Literatures: Sino-Japanese and Greco-Roman Comparisons, The Norton Anthology of World Literature, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature, The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature, a three-volume literary history of Japan from an East Asian perspective (Nihon “bun”gakushi. A New History of Japanese “Letterature”; in Japanese), and Shared Pasts for Shared Futures: Prototyping a Comparative Global Humanities (special issue of History of Humanities).
Denecke is Founding Editor-in-Chief of The Hsu-Tang Library of Classical Chinese Literature, which features smartly scholarly and eminently readable translations of three millennia of East Asia's literary heritage. She leads the MIT Comparative Global Humanities Initiative, which spearheads the global transformation of the humanities in an age of STEM and brings stakeholders from across academia, the public sector and society together to work towards a shared future in challenging times

Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University

Mohsen Mostafavi

Mohsen Mostafavi, architect and educator, is the Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, and served as Dean of the GSD from 2008-2019. His work focuses on modes and processes of urbanization and on the interface between technology and aesthetics.
He was formerly the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University where he was also the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture. Previously, he was the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. He studied architecture at the AA, and undertook research on counter-reformation urban history at the Universities of Essex and Cambridge. He has been the Director of the Master of Architecture I Program at the GSD and has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Cambridge, and the Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts (Städelschule).
Mostafavi is a Trustee of Smith College, an Honorary Trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation, and served on the Board of the Van Alen Institute as well as the Steering Committee and the Jury of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. At Harvard, he co-chaired the Harvard University Committee for the Arts, served on the Smith Campus Center Executive Committee, the Harvard Allston Steering Committee, and co-chaired the Steering Committee on Common Spaces. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Mahindra Humanities Center, the Harvard Innovation Lab Advisory Board, the Executive Board of The Laboratory at Harvard, and the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies.
Mostafavi has chaired the jury of the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Architecture and the European, Global, and North American juries of the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction. He served on the design committee of the London Development Agency (LDA), the juries for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gold Medal and Annie Spink Award, and the advisory committee on campus planning of the Asian University for Women.
He is a consultant on a number of international architectural and urban projects. His research and design projects have been published in many journals, including The Architectural Review, AAFiles, Arquitectura, Bauwelt, Casabella, Centre, Daidalos, and El Croquis. His books include On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time (co-authored 1993), which received the American Institute of Architects prize for writing on architectural theory; Delayed Space (co-authored 1994); Approximations (2002); Surface Architecture (2002); Logique Visuelle (2003); Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape (2004); Structure as Space (2006); Ecological Urbanism (co-edited 2010 and recently translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish); Implicate & Explicate (2011); Louis Vuitton: Architecture and Interiors (2011); In the Life of Cities (2012); Instigations: Engaging Architecture, Landscape and the City (co-edited 2012); Architecture is Life (2013); Nicholas Hawksmoor: The London Churches (2015); Architecture and Plurality (2016); Portman’s America & Other Speculations (2017); and Ethics of the Urban: The City and the Spaces of the Political (2017).

Mythologist

Devdutt Pattanaik

Devdutt Pattanaik is a much sought after speaker and culture consultant, who uses mythology as a toolkit to make sense of work, life, business and entrepreneurship. He has written over 50 books on the relevance of Indian and World mythology in modern times. These include the bestselling Jaya, Sita, Olympus, Eden, Shikhandi, Sati Savitri, My Gita, Business Sutra, Faith, Shiva to Shankara, Seven Secrets of Hindu Calendar Art, Fun in Devlok many of which have been translated in various Indian and foreign languages. Trained in medicine, he worked in the pharma and healthcare industry for 15 years, before plunging full time into the world of stories, symbols and rituals. His TV shows include Business Sutra on CNBC-TV18 and Devlok on Epic TV. He has written over 1000 newspaper columns that appear regularly in Times of India, Economic Times, The Hindu, New Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi), Star of Mysore (Kannada) and Dharitri (Odia).

Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science, Yale University

Laurie Ann Paul

L.A. Paul is the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science at Yale University and leads the Self and Society Initiative for Yale’s Wu Tsai Institute. Her research explores questions about the nature of the self and decision-making, and the metaphysics and cognitive science of time, cause, and experience.

She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the Australian National University. She is also the author of three books, including Transformative Experience (Oxford University Press, 2014), and Causation: A User’s Guide (Oxford University Press, 2013), which was awarded the American Philosophical Association Sanders Book Prize. In 2020 she received the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution from the American Philosophical Association and Phi Beta Kappa Society, and in 2023 she received a Research Award, for academic achievement, from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Her work on transformative experience has been covered in major media venues such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, the LA Times Book Review, NPR, and the BBC, and explored artistically, in "The Missing Shade of You", a dance and spoken word performance by the Logos Dance Collective, performed in New York City in 2017, in the documentary film “Comfort Zone”, about off-piste/extreme skiing in Scotland, and as the defining theme of the 2022 contemporary art fair Artissima, in Turin, Italy. She is currently working on a book, under contract with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, about self construction, transformative experience, humility, and fear of mental corruption.

Professor of Asian and Cultural Studies, Tallinn University

Rein Raud

Rein Raud (born in 1961 in Tallinn, Estonia) is a scholar (philosophy, cultural theory, Asian studies with a focus on Japan) and an award-winning novelist. He studied Japanese at the St. Petersburg University (1980-85) and defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki (1994) with classical Japanese poetry as his topic. More recently, his focus has shifted towards philosophy and cultural theory. “Meaning in Action” (2016, Polity Books) presents an innovative theory of culture and a methodology that can be used for the study of cultural phenomena across cultures and historical periods. “Being in Flux” (2021, Polity Books) summarizes his take on process philosophy and applies his version of it to the study of subjectivity, and “Linguistic Carnival of Thought” (2025, Bloomsbury) studies the varied and complicated relations between linguistic structures and philosophical thought, addressing both Western and Asian ideas as well as the linguistic phenomena underlying them.

Secretary General, GESDA

Stéphane Decoutère

Member and Secretary General of GESDA Foundation Board of Directors

Born in Brussels, Belgium, in January 1960, to a Belgian father and a Swiss mother, Mr. Stéphane Decoutère moved to Switzerland ten years later where he first completed the high-school program in Sion from 1971 to 1979 in the Latin English section.

A geographer and sociologist by training with a master degree of the University of Fribourg in these two fields as well as in French Literature, Stéphane Decoutère started his career in 1985 by working in science and communications through positions at the University of Fribourg and the Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), as well as in the private sector; he also served from 1996 to 2000 as a scientific advisor and project lead on public management to the government in Valais, one of the 26 Swiss Cantons.

Mr. Decoutère was then involved in developing Switzerland’s educational, research and innovation policy, both nationally and internationally.

•In December 2000, he joined the Swiss federal administration as personal advisor to Eric Fumeaux, the Director of the Federal Office for Vocational Education and Technology as well as President of the Swiss Innovation Agency.

•In June 2005, he was appointed as personal advisor to Federal Councillor Pascal Couchepin, the Swiss Minister of Education, Research, Culture, Health, and Social Affairs, as well as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2003 and 2008.

•In May 2010, he returned to EPFL as Head of External and Governmental Affairs to the EPFL President, first to Patrick Aebischer till end 2016 and then to Martin Vetterli.

In June 2019, Stéphane Decoutère was appointed Secretary General and acting CEO of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation (GESDA) he had helped designing between 2017 and 2019. He was tasked by the Foundation’s Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe to launch the operations from scratch and make the three-year pilot phase of GESDA a success.

After the Foundation was renewed for ten years (2022-2032) by its Founders, the Swiss and Geneva governments, Stéphane Decoutère joined GESDA's Board of Directors in October 2022 as a Member and Secretary General of the Board, his current position.

About the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation (GESDA)
An independent, private non-profit foundation under Swiss law and a private-public partnership with the Swiss and Geneva authorities, GESDA was created in 2019 to strengthen the international community's preparedness & impact through developing an instrument of anticipation and action allowing scientists, politicians, diplomats, entrepreneurs, philanthropists and citizens of the world to benefit as early as possible from emerging science disruptions.
GESDA’s Foundation’s Board of Directors is chaired by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman Emeritus of Nestlé Group SA; Patrick Aebischer, President Emeritus of EPFL, is the Foundation’s Vice-Chairman as well as Chair of GESDA Impact Forum while GESDA’s Academic Forum is run by Michael Hengartner, Chairman of the ETH-Board in Zurich. GESDA’s Diplomatic Forum is chaired by Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister as well as President of the Jacques Delors Foundation in Paris and Dean of International Affairs at IE University in Madrid. GESDA Citizen’s Forum is chaired by Mrs. Henrietta Fore, Chairman & CEO of Holsman International, former Director General of UNICEF and Administrator of USAID. Further members of the Board include Micheline Calmy-Rey, Urs Gasser, John-Arne Røttingen, Anton Rupert, Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, Magdalena Skipper and Eng Chye Tan while Prof. Marilyne Andersen serves as the Foundation’s Director General.
More information on www.gesda.global.

Deputy Secretary-General , International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences/ Associate Professor, University of Szeged

Zoltan Somhegyi

Zoltán Somhegyi is an art historian with a Ph.D. in aesthetics and a Habilitation (venia legendi) in philosophy, and is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Szeged. He was the Secretary General (2016-2022) and still is Website Editor of the International Association for Aesthetics (IAA), and he is the Deputy Secretary General of the International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences (CIPSH) since 2023. His current research project on Art and Catastrophe - Challenging Aesthetics Around Environmental Destruction is supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences through a three-year grant (2024-2027). Among his recent books are Reviewing the Past. The Presence of Ruins (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2020); Aesthetic Theory Across the Disciplines (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023; co-edited with Max Ryynänen) and The Routledge Companion to The Philosophy of Architectural Reconstruction (Routledge, 2024; co-edited with Lisa Giombini).
www.zoltansomhegyi.com

Professor Emerita, Ewha Womans University

Heisook Kim

Dr. Heisook Kim is currently the President of FISP (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie). She previously served as the 16th President of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea, a position she held until February 2021. Dr. Kim earned her B.A. and M.A. from Ewha Womans University and completed her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1987.Throughout her career at Ewha, she has held leading roles in numerous academic societies, including serving as President of both the Korean Philosophical Association and the Korean Association of Feminist Philosophy. She has also contributed to several governmental advisory committees in the areas of education, law, and presidential commission on policy planning.

Chairman, Federation of Korean Industries

Jin Roy Ryu

In 2001, Mr. Jin Roy Ryu succeeded his late father and founder of Poongsan Group, one of the largest manufacturers of copper products and munitions worldwide, as Chairman and CEO. He currently serves as Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), Chairman of the Korea-US Economic Council, Vice President of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs (SFIA) and is also a Trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Mr. Ryu supports a number of philanthropic and educational organizations as a member of the Board of Trustees of the George & Barbara Bush Foundation and the Board of Governors of the PGA Tour's First Tee Program. In 2015, Mr. Ryu collaborated with the PGA Tour to host the President’s Cup Golf Tournament in Korea and chaired the Tournament Organizing Committee.
Domestically, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Pearl S. Buck Foundation and the Seoae Memorial Foundation which was established in honor of his grandfather thirteen generations prior, the most celebrated Confucian scholar and statesman of sixteenth century Korea.

In 2005, the Korean Government awarded Mr. Ryu the Order of Industrial Merit, the Gold Tower Award. In 2012, Mr. Ryu received the Order of Civil Merit, the Moran (Peony) Medal for his distinguished service and steadfast efforts to enhance Korea's visibility and participation in the global community.

Mr. Ryu remains actively connected to his alma mater, Seoul National University, and co-chairs the University’s Social Responsibility and Contribution Committee.

Professor and Director, University of St.Gallen (TBD)

Thomas Beschorner

Thomas is a Professor of Business Ethics and Director of the Institute for Business Ethics at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He works on topics at the intersection of social sciences and ethics in general, particularly in the fields of Business Ethics and Ethics & AI. He has published over 100 research articles and also regularly writes in leading newspapers in the German-speaking world.

Founder and CEO, Limn / Philosopher

Tobias Rees

Tobias Rees is founder of Limn, a philosophical R&D lab dedicated to AI. He is a Senior AI 2050 Fellow of Schmidt Sciences; a Global Philosophy Scholar at Peking University; and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Google.

Prior to founding Limn, Rees was William Dawson Chair at McGill University; Reid Hoffman University Professor of Humanities at Parsons/The New School; Founding Director at the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles; and founder and CEO of ToftH School, a short lived but insightful attempt to build a new Bauhaus.

Rees has written 7 books, over 50 articles, and is the recipient of multiple prizes and fellowships, nationally and internationally. His work appeared in the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, the NYT, Wired, NZZ, Vice, SZ, Vanity Fair, and more. He has worked as advisor to many European and North American Universities and Art Institutions and has a long history of collaborations with artists.

Executive Advisor, Chief Strategist, Kyoto Institute of Philosophy/Harvard University Graduate School of Design/ Yamauchi No.10 Family Office

Masaki Nomura

Masaki Nomura is a researcher bridging Japanese philosophy with architecture and urbanism. His research explores the potential applications of Japanese philosophy—pursuing the non-duality of subject and object, self and others, humans and nature, body and mind, and beyond—to global agendas and the conceptual frameworks that underpin them.

His professional background includes service as a national government official at Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and as a C-suite executive at the medical AI venture Aillis, Inc., which won the Grand Prix at the Startup World Cup 2023. He is also co-author of the Harvard Business School case study “The Pokémon Company: Evolving into an Everlasting Brand,” which examines a Japanese management philosophy that emphasizes long-term and mutual prosperity over short-term and individual profit.

He currently serves as Executive Advisor and Chief Strategist at the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy, Executive Advisor to the Yamauchi No.10 Family Office (the Nintendo founding family), a Special Committee Member of the Kyoto City Government’s Deliberative Council, where he is responsible for drafting the Kyoto Grand Vision 2050, and an Affiliated Research Fellow at Kyoto University. A practitioner of kendo (Japanese swordsmanship) for 29 years, he continues to cultivate its discipline as part of his philosophical practice.

He received a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School, a Master of Philosophy from Kyoto University, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tokyo, and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, focusing on Japanese non-dualistic philosophy in relation to architecture and urbanism.

Former Rector and Full Professor, Polytechnic of Turin

Guido Saracco

Full Professor of Chemical Foundations of Technology at the Polytechnic University of Turin.
He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Turin since 2015, Guido Saracco served as Rector of his university from 2018 to 2024. He has conducted research in the areas of photochemistry, catalysis, and green chemistry, with over 500 publications to his credit. He is the curator of the Biennale Tecnologia festival and the Prometeo Tech Cultures cultural content production platform, which focus on the mutual relationships between technology and humanity.

Head of African AI and Ubuntu Ethics at Inclusive AI Lab, University of Utrecht

Wakanyi Hoffman

Wakanyi Hoffman is an African Scholar of Ubuntu Philosophy whose pioneering work is at the forefront of integrating Ubuntu Ethics into AI systems, leveraging it as an essential ethical framework for ensuring that these technologies promote collective human values. This approach highlights how the African indigenous principles of interconnectedness, compassion and dignity inherent in Ubuntu can guide AI to reflect ethical ways of being human, thus fostering inner well-being and planetary flourishing. Wakanyi is the lead researcher for Sustainable African AI Design for the Inclusive AI Lab at the Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe) at Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Director and Professor at the Institute for the Future of Human Society (IFoHS) , Kyoto University

Yukiko Uchida

Yukiko Uchida is a director and professor at the Institute for the Future of Human Society (IFoHS) at Kyoto University, where she also leads the Cultural Psychology lab. She is affiliated with the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, where her students are enrolled. Dr. Uchida has conducted extensive empirical research in cultural psychology, focusing on international and regional comparative studies on "happiness and well-being," "self and social relations," and "emotions." Here work has resulted in numerous high-impact publications and significant contributions to social activities.
Dr. Uchida has authored over 200 academic papers published in top social psychology journals, including JPSP and Psychological Science. She has served on the editorial boards of international journals such as Cognition and Emotion and has been an invited keynote speaker at various international conferences. She has received many awards, including Kyoto University's Best Female Researcher Award, the Japanese Psychological Association International Encouragement Award, and several paper and presentation awards from academic societies. She was also selected as an APS Fellow. Currently, she is a member of the program committee for the APS annual conference.
Her achievements extend to numerous international collaborative research projects and co-authored papers with interdisciplinary researchers, though which she has disseminated impactful research results.
Dr. Uchida has established solid relationships with corporations and national governments, showcasing outstanding abilities in research exchange and the social dissemination of research findings. She was a member of the Cabinet Office's Study Group on Well-being, contributing to the development of well-being indices. She also drafted initiatives for the Ministry of Education’s Central Commission about well-being in education, where she continues to significantly influence the implementation of well-being in society. Throughout her experience, she believes it is important to foster global and interdisciplinary discussions within the APS, especially as current social issues become increasingly complex.