Dr. Petteri Taalas

Professor Petteri Taalas, a leading expert in climate change, disasters, and water management, currently serves as the Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, a position he resumed on January 1, 2024. 

He holds a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Helsinki and has an extensive career in both scientific and leadership roles within atmospheric science. Previously, he completed an 8-year term as Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, where he led significant reforms to modernize the organization's structure and enhance its global role in climate and disaster science. 

Professor Taalas is actively involved in various national and international organizations, including the Climate Core Group of the UN Secretary-General and the IPCC. His accolades include being named European of the Year in 2021, Ex-pat of the Year in 2019, and Friend of the UN in 2022, reflecting his impactful contributions to the field.

Dr. Steffen Thirstrup

Steffen Thirstrup is the Chief Medical Officer at the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, a position he has held since June 2022. He is a medical doctor and board-certified specialist in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, holding a PhD in pharmacology. He has a strong background in clinical internal medicine, particularly adult respiratory medicine. 

In 2012, he was appointed adjunct professor in pharmacotherapy at the University of Copenhagen. From 2004 to 2009, Dr. Thirstrup served at the Danish Medicines Agency as the Danish member of the CHMP at the EMA and later as the Head of Division for Medicines Assessment and Clinical Trials. In March 2013, he joined NDA Group AB as a medical advisor and was appointed director of the Regulatory Advisory Board in 2014. 

Professor Thirstrup has authored over 40 scientific papers and co-edited a Danish pharmacology textbook. He divides his time between Amsterdam and Værløse, Denmark.

Dr. Peter Piot

Peter Piot MD PhD is a Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Senior Advisor at the Gates Foundation, and visiting professor at the KU Leuven, and the National University of Singapore. 

He was Special Advisor to EC President von der Leyen on Health Security and was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the UN. He co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and led research on HIV, women’s health and infectious diseases. His MD is from Ghent and PhD from Antwerp, and worked at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; the University of Washington, Seattle; the University of Nairobi; Imperial College London; the College de France, Paris. 

He is a member of the Belgian, American, British, and French Academies of Medicine, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He is Chair of the Strategic Committee of the Pasteur Network, Paris, the IAC of the Global Burden of Disease, Seattle, the IAP of PREPARE, Singapore, and Vice-Chair of GHIT, Tokyo, and was a founding Board Member of CEPI, and of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, Malaria. He is an independent director at Biocon Biologics Ltd, and at Biological-E.

He was made a Baron in his native Belgium, and received a UK Knighthood, and the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun, Japan. His awards include the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, Robert Koch Gold Medal, Prince Mahidol Award,  Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, WHO Life Achievement Award, and was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year. He has published over 650 scientific articles and 17 books, including No Time to Lose, available in 5 languages.