Her Excellency Amada Ellis

Head of Mission and Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the United Nations

Ms. Agnes Katsonga Phiri

Commissioner Customs and Excise - Malawi Revenue Authority

Ms. Phiti joined Customs in 1983 have worked as Chief Collector, head of inspectorate, Regional Manager South in charge of both Customs and Income Tax Stations, Deputy Commissioner for Customs and Excise Operations. In 2011 to 2012 worked as a Consultant for USAID Trade Hub on Trade Facilitation Appointed Commissioner for Customs and Excise- Imports June 2012. A graduate holder of Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration, Masters in Business Administration ( Fiscal). Married to Mark & mother of 3 daughter all graduates am Economist, Psychologist, Mass Communication

Dr. Gudrun Vande Walle

Assistant Professor at Ghent University College (affiliated Ghent University) Department of Business and Public Administration.

My research topic now is corruption and anti-corruption policy in the public and private sector. As a subcontractor of PwC I work as a Local Research Correspondent on Corruption for Belgium (see: LRCC-network - DG Home Affairs – EC).  I have a Law degree (KuLeuven - 1995) and a PhD in Criminology (UGent - 2003). I have worked in academia since 1997 first at Ghent University, department of Penal Law and Criminology and since 2008 at Ghent University College in Public administration and management. The courses I have been responsible for are: Financial-Economic Crime, Ethics and Corruption, Sociology of Law, Security & Technology and Management. My main research topics are: corporate responsibility, conflict resolution and collective victimization, integrity and corruption in the public and private sector, and environmental victimization. I have elaborated expertise in the qualitative research methods of interviewing and organizing focus groups and in the scientific analyses of collected information. In January I started the Master Class Forensic Auditing at Antwerp Management School in order to improve my practical knowledge and to evolve my technical skills about forensic auditing and preventing fraud and corruption in the public and private sector. From 2008 to 2010 I was trainer in an anti-corruption training project of the Belgian Customs Administration

Ms. Gertrude Nimako-Boateng

Executive Director, International Trade Institute for West Africa

Gertrude Nimako-Boateng is a leading international trade lawyer from Ghana and a staff member of the United Nations Office in Geneva for almost 25 years. She studied French and Russian at the University of Ghana, Legon and spent one year in Moscow where she studied Russian at the Pushkin Institute for Russian Language. She later proceeded to study for a Bachelor of Laws Degree (LL.B Honours) at the University of London, United Kingdom. She holds a Master of Laws Degree in International Commercial and Business Law from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. Since 2003, she has been a member of the United Nations Legal Committee for the International Law Commission, and she is currently a fellow of the Advisory Center on WTO Law (ACWL) in Geneva, Switzerland. From 2007 until 2010, she functioned as Coordinator of the United Nations Geneva Graduate Study Programme, which brings some eighty (80) post-graduate students from all over the world to Geneva, Switzerland, to study the work of the United Nations. In this regard, she has been mentoring both undergraduate and post-graduates students since 2007. She also taught Public International Law at a Geneva private institute. Under the University of London International Programme, she mentors prospective students for the Bachelor of Laws Degree. In 2009, she participated in the drafting of model contracts for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, a project Commissioned by the International Trade Center (ITC), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition to her regular functions at the United Nations, Gertrude Nimako-Boateng is the Executive Director of the International Trade Institute for West Africa (ITIWA), a not-for-profit organization which she founded in Accra, Ghana to train government officials, legal practitioners, customs officials, business people and students in World Trade Organization (WTO) Law. She has extensive experience in fair trade issues with local communities in Africa, having worked as Senior Communications Adviser for the African Cashew Initiative, a Public Private Partnership funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the German Government and multinational companies. She has published widely in criminal law and international trade law, notably, “Documentary Credit Transactions: A Case of Double Standards”. In June 2012, the 155 WTO Member States approved her nomination for inclusion in the indicative list of Panels of the WTO Dispute Settlement System, making her the first Ghanaian woman and the first United Nations staff member to hold such a position. Since Russia’s accession to the WTO in August 2012, Gertrude Nimako-Boateng serves as a consultant in WTO Law in Russia.

Ms. Margaret Saner

Vice President of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration

After a successful career in the UK Civil Service Margaret is now an independent professional adviser specialising in Governance, Leadership, Change and Institution Building.  Margaret is Vice President of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration (UNCEPA). Extensive international experience includes a loan to the Government of Kenya as adviser to the Prime Minister; establishing his Office following the post election violence (including public sector transformation and leadership development). Previous posts include: Head of Corporate Leadership Development in the Cabinet Office, interim Chief Executive of the ‘new’ Centre for Management and Policy Studies and Deputy Principal of the National School of Government.  Margaret was seconded as a Director of CAPAM (Commonwealth Association for Public Administration) establishing a Commonwealth wide network for public service learning and development for reform. On return she supported the Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit at HM Treasury in establishing cross government accountability for results. Throughout her career Margaret has encouraged Diversity, including running specialist programmes for women; most recently she was a keynote speaker at a UN sponsored international conference in Morocco on rural women’s development. She is also adviser to an Australian programme on barriers to progress for senior women.