A Conversation with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
With this, the Bloomberg Emerging Frontier Forum 2021 is delighted to invite you to a virtual conversation with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, to discuss the role trade plays in global development and the WTO's strategic priorities to address critical uncertainties spawned by the pandemic.
The event will be moderated by Francine Lacqua, Anchor & Editor-at-Large at Bloomberg TV.
Speakers
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Director-General
World Trade Organization
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The first woman and first African to hold the position in the 75-year history of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) and World Trade Organisation. She is an economist and international development expert with over 40 years of experience. She was Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2016 – 2020), the African Risk Capacity (2014 – 2020) and Co-Chair of The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor at Lazard Ltd. and sat on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. Dr Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as an African Union COVID-19 Special Envoy, as well as WHO COVID-19 Special Envoy in 2020. She was one of the founders of the COVAX Facility designed to get affordable vaccines to Low and Low Middle-Income Countries Dr Okonjo-Iweala served as Nigeria’s first female and longest serving Finance Minister (7 years). She was also the first female Foreign Minister. She spent a 25-year career at the World Bank rising to the No.2 position of Managing Director, Operations. In 2020 Dr Okonjo-Iweala was named Forbes African of the Year. She has been ranked by Fortune as one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (2015) and by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World consecutively for four years. She is the recipient of 15 Honorary Doctorate Degrees including from some of the world's most prestigious universities such Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University and Trinity College Dublin. She holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Francine Lacqua
Editor-at-Large
Bloomberg TV
Francine Lacqua is an award-winning London-based anchor for Bloomberg Television. She co-anchors the weekday 3-hour daily program “Bloomberg Surveillance” with Tom Keene, where she provides insight on foreign policy, global markets and the top business stories of the day. She also presents “Leaders with Lacqua,” a special series where she sits down with top CEOs, entrepreneurs and public figures. Since joining Bloomberg in 2000, Lacqua has covered the World Economic Forum in Davos, IMF in Washington, G20 meetings, the EU Leaders Summit and OPEC. She also led Bloomberg Television’s coverage of the Italian and French elections where she was one of the first international reporters to interview cabinet members. While at Bloomberg, Lacqua has interviewed high-profile figures such as French President Emmanuel Macron, former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, Billionaire financier George Soros and ECB President Mario Draghi. She has also interviewed finance ministers from South Korea, Russia, France, Mexico, Italy and Greece, as well as moderating televised debates from the World Economic Forum in Davos and the European Economic Governance package.