Biographies of the Speakers

Gender and Local Economic Development: Unlocking Domestic Capital for Women s Economic Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Biographies of the Speakers H.E. Ms. Åsa Regnér, Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden Ms. Regnér currently serves as Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality at the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs in Sweden, and is a member of the Social Democratic Party in Sweden. Before holding this post, she was a Country Director at UN Women, Bolivia and a Secretary- General, RFSU (the Swedish Association for Sex Education). Before she had held various positions in the Swedish government; from 2004-2006 she had served as a Director of Planning, Ministry of Justice (Minister for Democracy and Gender Equality), as Political Adviser in the Prime Minister's Office (EU Coordination) (1999-2004), as Political Adviser, home affairs, Prime Minister's Office (1998-1999), Special Adviser, Ministry of Employment (1996-1998), Inquiry Chair, and as Inquiry into the labour market for women (1995-1996). Ms. Regnér holds a Master s degree in democratic development from the Uppsala University and Bachelor of Arts degree (German, Spanish and history of art) from the Stockholm University. H.E. Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women Dr. K. Kellie Leitch was elected to the House of Commons in May 2011. In July 2013, Dr. Leitch was appointed Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women. Previously, she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and to the Minister of Labour in May 2011. Dr. Leitch is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and an associate professor of surgery. She is the former Chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership and has served on various councils and boards, including the YMCA and Community Living. As a volunteer, Dr. Leitch served as council member on the National Research Council of Canada, was a board member of Genome Canada, a director on the

YMCA of Greater Toronto board of directors, Vice- President of the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research and founder of The Sandbox Project. Dr. Leitch earned her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1994 and her MBA from Dalhousie University in 1998. Dr. Leitch has been recognized with the Order of Ontario for her advocacy work on behalf of Canadian children and, in 2005, she was selected as one of Canada's "Top 40 Under 40" for her work in both medicine and business. Ms. Judith Karl, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). Ms. Karl has served as Director of the Operations Support Group in the UNDP Executive Office since 2009. Prior to this, she served as Chief, Central Strategy and Policy Cluster for UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery from 2006 to 2008. She was a Senior Policy Advisor with the Crisis and Post- Conflict Unit in UN Development Group Office (2005-2006). From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Karl served as Senior Advisor for UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery in Geneva and as Deputy Director for UNDP Washington Liaison Office (2000-2002). She started her career with UNDP in 1988 as a Training Officer with the UNDP Training Section. She served as Assistant Resident Representative with UNDP in Mali (1992-1994) and in Cambodia (1994-1997) and subsequently became a Policy Advisor for the Directorate in the Operations Support Group (1997-1999) and UNDP Latin America and Caribbean (1999-2000). Before joining UNDP, Ms. Karl spent seven years as a Management Consultant with a focus on redesigning business processes in the US private banking and real estate sectors. Judith holds a Master's degree in International Development Administration from New York University and a Bachelor degree from Columbia University. H.E. Mr. Tuvako N. Manongi, Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania H.E. Tuvako Nathaniel Manongi was appointed as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations, New York, on 24 July 2012. Ambassador Manongi is a career member of the Tanzanian Foreign Service where he has served in several senior positions. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1978 as a Legal Officer. He worked as Personal Assistant to President Benjamin William Mkapa from 2002 2004, served as Second and First Secretary at the Tanzanian Embassy in Washington, DC (1981 1987); Counselor (Legal) at the Permanent Mission in New York (1997 2001); and, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York (2005 2006). From 2007 to June 2012, he served as a Principal Officer at the Office of the Deputy Secretary General in the Executive Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations. Ambassador

Manongi was educated at the Faculty of Law of the University of Dar es Salaam and holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree. He graduated from the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar es Salaam and earned a postgraduate degree on Maritime Administration from the World Maritime University in Malmo Sweden. Ms. Luna Shamsuddoha, CEO of Dohatec, Entrepreneur from Bangladesh Luna Shamsuddoha is an IT entrepreneur and Chairperson of the software firm Dohatec New Media, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which she founded in 1992. She leads the management team and is responsible for marketing overseas, overseeing quality and emerging technology, and monitoring project implementation of overseas contracts. She has received international recognition for her path- breaking work. She is a Member of the Council of Global Thought Leaders on Inclusive Growth, Switzerland. The eminent Council comprises of 32 distinguished persons including Nobel Laureates, Professors, former Presidents, and Cabinet Ministers. Her company is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and System Integrator. Dohatec provides software solutions design and development services to institutions, government agencies and corporations in the USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Bangladesh. Dohatec s key clients are the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the US Postal Service, the Government of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Army. Dohatec is a Certifying Authority and issues Digital Certificates including identification and SSL Certificates and PKI enablement solutions. Luna Shamsuddoha holds a Master s degree in International Relations from University of Dhaka, and started business in 1985 as the Managing Partner of The Executive Centre. Earlier she worked as English Language Teacher, British Council, Language Resource Centre and a Lecturer, English Language, Institute of Modern Languages, Dhaka University. She also worked as a stringer for Australia Broadcasting Corporation, ABC. Luna is the President of Bangladesh Women in Technology BWIT, a forum promoting and encouraging girls to study and pursue careers in technology. She is the Vice President of Gulshan Society. Ms. Anna Fälth, Manager, EmpowerWomen, UN Women Anna Fälth is the Manager of UN Women s EmpowerWomen.org. She initiated consultations for this global online platform in February 2013, and brought it to its global launch during the high- level segment of the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2013. Anna has over seventeen years working on women s economic empowerment issues. She started in the refugee and immigration service in Sweden, and then joined the United Nations system in 1998. She has since then held economic advisor positions in UNCTAD, UNDP, UN- DESA and now in UN Women.

Anna holds a Master s of Science in Economics from Lund University, Sweden, and a European Masters in Law and Economics from Hamburg University, Germany. Ms. Randi Davis, Director UNDP Gender Team Randi Davis is Director of UNDP's Gender Team, based in New York. Ms. Davis expertise lies in the areas of gender equality, women s empowerment, democratic governance and local urban development. She was part of the founding team that designed and launched the United Nations Democracy Fund and she spearheaded UNDP's global practice on parliamentary development. She also was responsible for bringing gender equality and women s empowerment into UNDP's electoral support. Randi was the founder of iknow Politics, a global knowledge portal for women in politics. She spent nearly a decade working in Asia on issues of local development, housing and urban settlements and more recently, she has been working on gender equality and democratic development in the Arab region. She has contributed to publications on Gender and Political Parties, Gender and Elections, Women in Parliament, and Local Urban Development. She holds a Master s Degree in International Affairs, with a specialty in International Political Economy, from Columbia University in New York; a Diploma from L Institut D Etudes Politiques in Paris; and an undergraduate degree in Economics from York University in Toronto. Ms. Meg Jones, Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women Meg Jones is Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section at UN Women. Before joining UN Women, she worked as Women and Trade Programme Manager at the International Trade Centre, where she was responsible for the design and implementation of the multiyear, multimillion dollar program to increase the economic benefits women derive from trade. Ms. Jones is the former Deputy Director of the Evian Group at IMD (a trade think tank). She has also worked for the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights and served on the Australian delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights. She also has private sector experience gained from working in the financial markets and in management consulting. Ms. Jones holds a Master of International Studies and a Bachelor of Economics (University of Sydney) having studied in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and the Netherlands.

Mr. Mohammad Abbadi, Local Development Finance Programme Manager, UNCDF Mohammad Abbadi is the Local Development Finance Programme Manager and Project Manager of the UNCDF/UN Women/UNDP global initiative Inclusive and Equitable Local Development Programme IELD. Before Joining UNCDF, Mohammad worked for UNDP Gender Team based in New York, focusing on Gender and Economic Development. Prior to that, he worked as an Economist to the Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of the Government of Jordan. Mohammad started his career working in the private sector providing IT solutions and sales consulting to small and medium size companies in the state of Massachusetts. Mr. Abbadi holds a Bachelor s degree in Economics from Hampshire College (USA) and a master degree in Public Administration from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, State University of New York at Albany (USA).