Manolo Abella currently manages the Governance of Labour Migration in Asia project of the ILO and EU based in Bangkok.  He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Public Policy Research in London.

From 1998 to 2004, he served as the Director of the International Migration Programme of the ILO.  He organised the activities that led to the adoption of a resolution on an ILO plan of action A Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in a Global Economy by the International Labour Conference and later, to the development of a multilateral framework for managing labour migration.

The book Managing Labour Migration in the 21st Century, which he co-authored with Philip Martin and C. Kuptsch, was published by Yale University Press in 2005.

Rola Abimourched was born in Lebanon and moved to the United States when she was seven.  Her experience as a first-generation immigrant to the US sparked her interest in migration and minority identities.  In 2004, she received a Fulbright Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to conduct research in Jordan on the situation of migrant domestic workers.  This research became the basis of her master’s thesis, Handpicked and Carefully Selected: An Exploration of the Livings of Migrant Domestic Workers in Jordan.  As a graduate student of the Arab Studies program at Georgetown University, she received the “Improving the Human Condition Award”.  Abimourched was also a recipient of the Foreign Languages and Area Studies Fellowship from 2006 to 2007.

Aderanti Adepoju is an economist and demographer and currently the Chief Executive of the Human Resources Development Centre in Lagos, Nigeria.  Prior to this, he served on the US National Academy of Sciences, the External Advisory Committee of the UNHCR, Editorial Advisory Board of International Migration and the Editorial Board of International Migration Review.  He was also the President of the Union for African Population Studies from 1991 to 1995.  He was the pioneer Regional Advisor on Population and Labour Policy for Africa for the ILO in Addis Ababa in the 1970s, the UN Chief Technical Advisor to the Government and University of Switzerland in the 1980s, and the UNFPA Training Coordinator of Population, Human Resources, and Development in Senegal.

Adepoju has published numerous books, monographs, and journal articles on population studies, migration, gender, structural adjustment programmes, poverty, and human resources development.

Mohammad Rashed Al Hasan is a microfinance and socioeconomic development specialist. He has been working at INAFI Bangladesh as Programme Officer since September, 2004. Recently, he has been implementing a project on remittances called the Institutional Support for Productive Utilisation of Migrant Workers’ Remittances in collaboration with five of INAFI’s partner NGOs. Before joining INAFI, he worked with the Palli Karma-Shahayak Foundation (PKSF), a Government Apex Funding organisation. He also worked at the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), a multilateral research organisation and different private sector organisations.

Hasan has strong knowledge on finance, economics, marketing, and project management. He has various publications on micro-insurance, migration, remittances and economic development, and microfinance.

Hamidou Bâ is a professional demographer currently working as an International Migration Expert at the Senegalese Migrants Foundation.

From the 1980s to 1990s, Bâ participated in several efforts to collect and analyse demographic data with the Directorate of Forecasting and Statistics.  As the Chief of the Population Studies and Policy Division of the Human Resources Directorate of the Ministry of Plan and Cooperation, he contributed to the development, implementation and evaluation of national population policies and programs. In addition, he also served as a lecturer of Demography at the University Gaston Berger from 1999 to 2001.  From 2003 to 2006, he coordinated the project “Labour Migration and Development in West Africa” at the Sahel sub-regional office of the ILO, which covered Burkina Faso, Capo Verde, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. He has published studies relating to statistics and legislation on migrant workers in West Africa.

Fr. Fabio Baggio is a missionary for the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo and an extraordinary professor at the Scalabrini International Migration Institute of the Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana in Rome.  He is also an ordinary professor of Modern Church History in the Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City, Philippines, Director of the Scalabrini Migration Centre in Manila, Philippines and an editor for the Asian Pacific Migration Journal (APMJ) and the Asian Migration New (AMN).

Baggio was a counselor of the Episcopal Commission for Migrations of Chile (INCAMI) in Santiago de Chile and a director of the Migration Department of the Archdioceses of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  He has worked as a researcher in the Centre for Latin American Migration Studies (CEMLA) in Buenos Aires. He taught as an extraordinary professor at the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires and the Institute of Theology of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Marleine Bastien is the Founder, former President, and current Executive Director of the Haitian Women of Miami, a group that has provided desperately needed services not only to Haitian women and their families, but to the community at large. She is also the Chair of the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Vice Chair of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition. Furthermore, she is one of the founders of the Haitian Neighborhood Centre, the Centre for Haitian Studies, and The Human Services Coalition. In 1999, Miami Herald named her as one of the “Forty Special People to Watch in the Next Millennium,” and in 2000, she received the Human Rights Award from Amnesty International. She also received the MS Women of the Year Award in 2001 and the Leadership for a Changing World Award from the Ford Foundation in 2002. Only three years ago, Essence Magazine included her in “The 35 Most Remarkable Women to Watch in the World.”

John Bingham is the Head of Policy of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) in Geneva.  A frequent speaker and panelist at international conferences on migration, Bingham addressed the UN General Assembly at the High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development in 2006 and participated in the first Global Forum on Migration and Development in Brussels in 2007.  He was recently elected president of the International NGO Platform on the Migrant Workers Convention.

Before joining ICMC, Bingham worked for eight years for Catholic Charities in New York, where he served as director of the departments of Immigrant and Refugee Services and later Capital Projects and Law.  He also became the Chair of the Board of the New York Immigration Coalition and the Migration Advisory Group of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops. He once taught human rights and criminal justice in a refugee camp of 240,000 Cambodians in Thailand, and later international business law at the university in Cambodia’s capital, where he co-authored two books, Free Market Contract Law and an English-Cambodian Law Dictionary.

Sharan Burrow (conference chairperson) is the second female President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).  She is also the President of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights under the ILO and a member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative.  As part of her ILO responsibilities, she chairs the Workers’ Group of the Sub-Committee on Multinational Enterprises.  She is a Board Member of the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements in Monash University, Australia. Burrow was elected Senior Vice President of the NSW Teachers’ Federation and became the President of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in 1992, where she represented the union at the ACTU Executive throughout the nineties.  She was also the Vice President of Education -International from 1995 to 2000.  In November 2006, Burrow became the President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a merger between the World Confederation of Labour and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, of which she also served as President. Burrow represented Labour on the Global Commission on International Migration and was one of the 13 Commissioners appointed to report to the then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Oscar Chacón was born and raised in El Salvador. He first came to the US in 1980 and has resided there since then. He is the Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC), an umbrella of immigrant-led organisations from around the US dedicated to improving the quality of life of Latino immigrant communities in the US, as well as of peoples throughout Latin America.  Until December 2006, Chacón served as the Director of Enlaces América, a project of the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights.  He served for most of the 1990s as the Executive Director of Centro Presente Incorporated in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a community-based organisation dedicated to the empowerment of Latino immigrants throughout Massachusetts.  He is a frequent lecturer in national and international conferences on issues such as migration, global economics, and immigrant integration.  He is also a media spokesperson on Latino and Latino immigrant community issues in the US.

Leonir Mario Chiarello is the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN) Director of Development for the Office of Brussels and the Director of Representation for the Offices of Brussels and New York.  He is also a founding member and first president of the Scalabrini Foundation and the Scalabrini NGO for Development in America.  In addition, he is the Founder and first Director of the Integrated Care Centre for Migrants.

He once served as the Counsellor of the Human Mobility Section of the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CIAMI) from 2002 to 2006, and became the Executive Vice President and Director of the Chilean Catholic Institute for Migration (INCAMI) from 2001 to 2006.  At the same time, he was also the Editor of INCAMI’s Revista Migrantes.

Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie is the Executive Director of the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) and is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture, and Commerce. Before working for AFFORD, Chikezie worked as a Senior Industry Analyst for a US-based international research and consulting firm, which helps clients design strategies for harnessing the benefits of the commercialisation of advanced technologies and understanding their social implications.  He has also served as an Adviser on the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s Technical Advisory Committee.

His research interests revolve around the contributions of African diaspora to its regional development, leadership and bottom-up enterprise development, interrelations between ICTs and African regional development, internet access in Africa, and the strategic use of ICTs to link Africa and the diaspora.  He regularly contributes articles and opinion pieces to several print and online publications.

Michael Clemens is a research fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD) and an adjunct professor at Public Policy Institute in Georgetown University.  He leads three initiatives in CGD regarding the engagement of fragile states, migration and development, and Zimbabwe’s crisis and future.  His expertise is on economic growth and development, foreign aid effectiveness, economic history, and international migration, while his research also focuses on capital flows and financial crises, migration and population, and the Millennium Development Goals. His current investigations examine the effects of skilled-worker emigration on developing countries—for instance, the aftermath of the outflow of professionals from Africa and the South Pacific.

Esteban Conejos Jr. is the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.  Prior to this, he was the Undersecretary for Operations of the Philippine Department of National Defense and the Chairman of PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority from 1998 to 2001; after which, he privately practiced law from 2001 to 2006.  His other recent private sector involvement was with Mabuhay Holdings and Development Corporation, a real estate development, shipping, and port operations business, where he served as Vice President and General Counsel from 1996 to 1998.  He has a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, College of Law and a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University.

Fr. Edwin D. Corros is the Treasurer of the Philippine Migrants’ Rights Watch, an umbrella organisation of various NGOs working for the advancement of the rights and welfare of overseas Filipinos and their families.  He is also the Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (ECMI-CBCP).  He has been an ordained member of the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo since 1992, an international Catholic religious missionary congregation founded in Piacenza, Italy for the service of the migrants and people on the move.

Lawrence Dacuycuy received his baccalaureate and master’s degrees in Economics in 1998 and 2000.  Under the auspices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), he obtained his doctorate in Economics at Kyoto University in Japan in 2006, specialising in applied labour econometrics.  He is currently the chair of the Economics Department at De La Salle University in Manila.

Dacuycuy’s research interests include the economics of migration, empirical macroeconometric modelling, inequality analysis, the labour economics of disadvantaged labour, and the empirics of economic growth.

Denis Drechsler is a Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator for the Poverty Reduction and Social Development Group.  His research interests include gender equality and social policies, labour economics, and migration and development.  He is the author of several articles and papers, which deal with the impact of institutions on development, and is the co-initiator of Wikigender.

Prior to joining the Development Centre in September 2004, Denis was a member of the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group of the World Bank and a visiting fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University.  He has also served at the German Parliament and the European Institute for International Economic Relations.

Richard Evans is the country manager of Manpower Outsourcing Services Incorporated, a wholly owned Philippine subsidiary of Manpower Incorporated.  He is responsible for ensuring that all aspects of the Philippine business operate within Manpower parameters and is conducted to the highest possible standards.  With responsibility for the strategic development of the Philippine operation, he also manages all aspects of daily operations, business planning, and performance.  In 2006, the Philippine operations was awarded the Manpower Power Award for outstanding performance in financial results, standing in the community, and quality and active stewardship and representation of the Manpower brand.

Prior to Evans’ assignment to the Philippines, he served as the Branch Manager for Permanent Services in Hong Kong in 1999; after which, he was promoted to Operations Manager in 2001 then to Manger of the Centre of Excellence for Permanent Services, Asia in 2003.

Jonathan Fanton has been the President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation since September 1999.  He is a Board Member of Human Rights Watch (HRW), the largest US-based human rights organisation, operating in 70 countries.  He is also an Advisory Trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago History Museum, and the Founding Board Chair of Security Council Report.  He is the Co-chair of Chicago's Partnership for New Communities.

Previously, he was the President of the New School for Social Research in New York City for 17 years.  He also served as the Chair of HRW’s Board for six years until 2003.  Furthermore, he became Chair of the New York Committee on Independent Colleges and Universities and Co-chair of the Fourteenth Street/Union Square Local Development Corporation.

Fanton is the author of The University and Civil Society, Volumes I and II and co-editor of John Brown: Great Lives Observed and The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age.

Lori Forman is the Regional Director of Community Affairs for Asia at Microsoft, where she oversees the management of competitive grants programs, disaster relief assistance, and software donations.  In addition, she leads the development of partnerships with regional and international organisations.  She also works with subsidiary offices to design and implement their Citizenship strategies.

Forman once served the US government as the US Alternate Executive Director on the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines and as the Assistant Administrator for Asia and Near East of the US Agency for International Development.  In between such appointments, she was the Director of Japan Programs for The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s largest environment organisations.  In November 2007, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appointed her to serve on the Board of Governors of the East-West Centre, a national educational institution established by Congress to promote better relations and understanding between the US and Asian and Pacific countries.

Yoji Fujisawa is the President of Japan’s Seamen Union (JSU), an organisation committed to improve the working conditions and social status of its members.  JSU advocates and defends seafarers’ rights and helps in the developing the full potential of every member by building their technical competence and instilling in them a concern for safety and environmental protection.  JSU activities include attending International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) meetings in drafting ITF policies and regulating implementation, and negotiating with Japanese ship owners in relation to the TCC agreements accepted by the ITF covering all non-domicile special union members.  It has its branches in 38 Japanese major ports and two offices overseas in Manila, Philippines and Haiphong, Vietnam.

Ashley William Gois is the Regional Coordinator of the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA).  He represents the MFA in various regional and international platforms of advocacy, particularly in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), International Labour Conference (ILC), Gulf Cooperation Council, The Hague Process, and the World Social Forum on Migration.  He is also the Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Migrants Rights International and the Executive Committee of South East Asia Committee for Advocacy.  Last year, the King Badouin Foundation invited Gois to be part of the Steering Committee for the First Global Forum on Migration and Development held in July 2007 in Brussels, Belgium.

Doris Magsaysay Ho is the President and CEO of the Magsaysay Group of Companies, which is involved in shipping, human resources, and business process outsourcing services.  She is also the President of the National Marine Group of Companies, chairman of Lorenzo Shipping Corporation, Director of Fairmont Shipping Limited, and Vice Chairman of Subic Shipyard Engineering Incorporated.  She is the Philippine Representative to the APEC Business Advisory Council and holds either a directorship or chairmanship position in several shipping organisations such as the Steamship Insurance Management Services Limited, Philippine Interisland Shipping Association, and Filipino Ship Owners’ Association.  She is one of the founding members of the Heritage Conservation Society, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum Manila, and Chairman of Asia Society – Philippine Office.  In 2002 and 2004, Magsaysay Ho received the Manhattanville College Leadership Award and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Social Responsibility, respectively.

Graeme Hugo is a professor of Geography at the Department of Geographical and Environmental Studies in the University of Adelaide, Australia.  He is also the Director of the Key Centre in Research and Teaching in the Social Science Application of Geographic Information Systems.

He is a member of the International Scientific Study of Populations Committee on International Migration and the International Geographical Union's Famine and Food Crisis Committee.  He is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Migration Review.  In 2002, he secured an ARC Federation Fellowship over five years for his research project, The New Paradigm of International Migration to and from Australia: Dimensions, Causes and Implications. His research interests concern population studies, development studies, and immigration in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Mike Jobbins is a research assistant at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) at Georgetown University, where he focuses on issues of forced migration and conflict management.  He is also a communications specialist at IBI Consulting, a business development and economic consultancy firm specialising in economic growth, organisation management, and environmental planning for World Bank, USAID, and other private sector clients.  His latest consultancy work brought him to Liberia to provide technical assistance to the Liberian Bureau of Budget in designing, editing, and publishing their 2008 to 2009 National Budget Book.  While at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars from March 2007 to January 2008, he co-produced the conference report on the implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which was published in July 2008.  He is a member of the Society for International Development, Meridian International Centre, African Studies Association, Society for International Development, and the Georgetown Political Science Association.