Panel dialogue: Shaping a digital future for people and planet

Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Kassabi has been the Minister of Commerce since 2016.  He also currently serves as chair of the board of directors for several organizations in his capacity as Minister of Commerce. These include the National Competitiveness Center, the Saudi Business Center, and Monshaat, the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority.

He also currently chairs the General Authority of Foreign Trade, the Saudi Standards, Metrology, and Quality Organization, along with the Saudi Accreditation Center.  Additionally, he is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants.

Previously, Dr. Al-Kassabi served as Acting Minister of Media, Acting Minister of Rural Affairs, and Minister of Social Affairs. He also used to serve as Advisor at the Chief Administration Office of His Highness the Crown Prince with Minister’s rank.

Al-Kassabi earned his B.A. in Civil Administration from the University of Portland in 1981, followed by his Master’s in the same field from the University of Berkeley in 1982. In 1983, he earned his Master’s in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri, followed by his PhD in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri in 1985.

Kjell Stefan Löfven is a Swedish politician who is currently serving as Co-Chair of the High-level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism.

He was Prime Minister of Sweden from 2014 to 2021, the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021, and previously the president of the Swedish Industrial and Metal Workers Union.

In 2016, he launched the Global Deal, a global initiative for social dialogue and better conditions in the labour market.

He has also been co-chair of the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work, together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and initiated, together with the Prime Minister of Spain, the Leaders’ Network for reinforcing multilateralism.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin took office as Secretary-General of the International elecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023. 

Ms Bogdan-Martin has held leadership positions in the field of international telecommunications policy for over three decades, with a track-record of brokering innovative partnerships to expand digital inclusion and connectivity for everyone around the world. Following her historic election by ITU Member States in September 2022, she became the first woman ever to head the organization, which was first established in 1865 and became a UN specialized agency in 1947. 

As Director of ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau for a four-year term starting in 2018, she helped put sustainable digital development at the forefront of international cooperation, including with the private sector and civil society.

From 2008 until 2018, Ms Bogdan-Martin served as Chief of ITU's Strategic Planning and Membership Department, overseeing corporate communications, external affairs, corporate strategy, and membership. Earlier, she headed the Regulatory and Market Environment Division and Regulatory Reform Unit in the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau​. 

Before joining ITU in 1994, she worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce as a Telecommunication Policy Specialist in the National Telecommunication and Information Administration. 

Ms Bogdan-Martin holds a Master's in International Communications Policy from American University in Washington, DC, a post-graduate certification in Strategies for Leadership from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a certification in Accountability and Ethics from the UN Leaders Programme. She is also a qualified amateur radio operator. 

Ian Saunders is Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO). He took office on 1 January 2024.

Prior to joining the WCO, Mr. Saunders worked as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this role, he was responsible for developing programmes, policies and strategies designed to strengthen the United States’ commercial position in this region of the globe.

Mr. Saunders spent most of his career with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), where he held several senior positions including Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs, Deputy Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs, and Acting Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner for Operations Support. Earlier in his tenure at CBP, he was Director of International Policy and Programs, Director of International Training and Assistance, and held several staff positions working on bilateral, regional and multilateral portfolios. Mr. Saunders entered the U.S. Government Senior Executive Service in 2008.

He has undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Affairs from Georgetown University in Washington DC, and has attended executive courses at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and the American University.

Thea Lee was named Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs on May 10, 2021. She has been advocating for workers’ rights, both domestically and internationally, for over thirty years. She was president of the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive pro-worker Washington think tank, from January 2018 to May 2021 and an international trade economist at EPI in the 1990s.  From 1997 to 2017, Ms. Lee worked at the AFL-CIO, a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women. At the AFL-CIO, she served as deputy chief of staff, policy director, and chief international economist.

Ms. Lee has served on the State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the Export-Import Bank Advisory Committee, and on the Boards of Directors of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, the Center for International Policy, and the Coalition on Human Needs, among others. She served on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission from 2018 to 2020. In 2022, she was appointed to the Congressional-Executive Committee on China.

Ms. Lee holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a bachelor’s degree in economics cum laude from Smith College.

Amandeep Singh Gill of India was appointed Envoy on Technology to the United Nations Secretary-General on 10 June 2022.

Mr. Gill is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) project, based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.  

Previously, he was the Executive Director and Co-Lead of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (2018-2019).  In addition to delivering the report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, Mr. Gill helped secure high-impact international consensus recommendations on regulating Artificial Intelligence (Al) in lethal autonomous weapon systems in 2017 and 2018, the draft Al ethics recommendation of UNESCO in 2020, and a new international platform on digital health and Al. 

Mr. Gill was India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (2016-2018). 

Mr. Gill holds a PhD in Nuclear Learning in Multilateral Forums from King’s College, London, a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Electrical Communications from Panjab University, Chandigarh and an Advanced Diploma in French History and Language from Geneva University.