Born in Taranto and graduated in Business Administration at Università Bocconi di Milano. After directing for almost 15 years Vita Consulting, advisory agency specialized in Corporate Philanthropy and Fundraising for profit and non profit organizations, he is currently advisor at UniCredit Foundation. He collaborates with SDA Bocconi on marketing and fundraising and he is visiting professor on Social Enterprise Finance at the LUMSA in Taranto.  

In charge of Sustainability at Reale Group, Virginia Antonini was previously Sustainability Manager at Juventus Football Club (2015-2016) and CSR Manager at Luigi Lavazza S.p.A (2011-2015). Between 2006 and 2011, Virginia Antonini worked at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at OCSE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) in Kosovo and for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy missions in Georgia and Afghanistan.

Gian Paolo Barbetta directs the Centre on Research on Cooperation and Non Profit at Università Cattolinca in Milan and he is the Referent Observatory and Evaluation of Fondazione Cariplo. Member of the Agency on Onlus, the body for the regulamentation of the non profit sector, he is Associate Professor at Università Cattolica and author of manifold publications and studies.

For thirty years, Roberto Bennati has been involved in developing campaign to protect animals rights. He has implemented national and international campaigns to stop seal hunting in the Artic, commercing cats and dogs leather in Europe, trafficking pets from East Europe with important results on national and international legislation. He coordinated the training program by the Ministry of internal Affairs  on the control for live animal transportation. From two years he is a board member of Eurogroup for Animals, the European Federation of  NGOs reuniting more than 50 organizations for animals protection.  

Priscilla Boiardi joined EVPA in April 2014 as Research Manager and became EVPA's Knowledge Centre Director in April 2016, leading the research, training and dissemination activities of the association. Priscilla is also an advisor on numerous EC-funded projects and she is part of the OECD Social Impact Investment Experts Group. Priscilla has more than 10 years of research experience, first as a Research Associate at the Vlerick Business School and then as a PhD candidate at the Catholic University of Leuven. She has a strong expertise in research for business and public bodies, both qualitative and quantitative. Priscilla holds a MSc (Hons) in Economics and Management of Public Administrations and International Institutions from the Bocconi University in Milan. She is an Italian national and speaks Italian, English and Spanish.

Céline Bonnaire graduated from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce and post-graduated in Latin American Studies from La Sorbonne, Paris. After 10 years’ experience in Corporate Communications, she switched to not-for-profit and, in 2006, and joined Kering (ex-PPR) working in philanthropy on education and social inclusion. In 2009, Céline became Executive Director of the newly launched Kering Corporate Foundation to combat violence against women.To enhance its social impact, the Foundation focuses on one cause in each of the following three regions: Sexual Violence in the Americas; Harmful Traditional Practices in Western Europe (France, Italy, United-Kingdom); Domestic Violence in Asia. The Kering Foundation supports NGOs’ projects and social entrepreneurs and organizes awareness campaigns involving the 40 000 Group’s employees.

Boogard has been an entrepreneur all his life, enjoying several successes, but also having had to overcome some failures. Now he co-manages a private investment company (family office) investing for social impact, is the founder of Jazi Foundation and the driving force behind 'EffectiveGiving' a community of foundations and large private philanthropists learning together how to make our maximum contribution to a better world. Jazi Foundation was founded with the mission of ‘increasing the impact op philanthropy’ in two ways. Firstly, by giving to a number of highly effective non-profit organisations, mainly focused on poverty alleviation and using a venture philanthropy approach (complementing grants, with knowledge and network). Secondly, by catalysing and supporting initiatives which aim to help foundations and philanthropists to learn to be more effective (such as through EffectiveGiving.nl).

Edmund J. Cain oversees all domestic and international grant programming at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, including overall responsibility for the Foundation’s strategic planning. Prior to joining the Foundation, Cain served as director of The Carter Center’s Global Development Initiative, which facilitated national development strategies in post-conflict countries. A senior member of The Carter Center’s Peace Program team, Cain advised former President Carter on global development issues and participated in election monitoring missions. Prior to that, Cain had a long career with the United Nations serving in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, and was a U.N. Resident Coordinator in Turkey and in Egypt. He was also the first Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Emergency Response Division. In that capacity he oversaw the formulation of UNDP’s disaster response policy and led missions to war-torn and disaster-affected countries. Cain also served in the U.N. Secretariat as the Chief of Staff to the U.N. Undersecretary General for General Assembly and Political Affairs. A Fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs and Senior Fellow at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, Cain holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Oregon and a bachelor’s degree in political science and international affairs from the University of Delaware.

Iacopo Canino has almost 20 years of experience in the areas of finance, restructuring and insolvency, general corporate and commercial law and has advised on a broad range of leveraged finance transactions in the Italian market. He is one of the very few Italian banking attorneys with specific knowledge and experience in the high yield space. Iacopo regularly takes a lead role on complex transactions and is accustomed to work within large cross-border interdisciplinary teams of lawyers, drawn from the Firm's offices across the globe. Iacopo is ranked amongst the leading lawyers in Banking & Finance by Chambers & Partners 2017 and Restructuring & Insolvency and Banking & Finance by The Legal 500 2016.

Graduated at Bocconi University in Milan, Simone Castello is Head of the Lang Centre on Strategic Philanthropy. He oversees the executive education and the publications of Fondazione Lang Italia. His areas of expertise include: advisory to businesses and corporate foundations to set up giving strategies and employee engagement initiatives; advisory to foundations and charities for the definition of theory of change.  Among his latest publications:  Manuale operativo per la Theory of Change. Linee guida per gestire un workshop partecipativo di Teoria del Cambiamento e porre le basi per la valutazione dell’impatto sociale, Philanthropy Insights, 2017; Social Impact Investing: macrotrend e opportunità per i principali player, Itinerari Previdenziali e Assoprevidenza, 2017; Theory of Change e Valutazione dell'Impatto Sociale. Metodi e Case History, Philanthropy Insights, 2016.

Cristina has been among the first in Italy to graduate in Communication with a Marketing dissertation and achieved a Phd in Telematics and Information Society in 2005 at Università di Firenze. After working for public and private bodies and planning and managing initiatives financed by European funds, since 2007 she works at the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, present in 73 Countries with 4.000 sisters and volunteers - leading the Good Shepherd International Foundation and coordinating international grant-seeking to support initiatives to promote social inclusion and human rights in southern countries. In the last 10 years, Cristina consolidated a network of relationships with foundations and major donors throughout Europe, USA and Asia, granting a growing fundraising trend - from some thousand euros in 2008 to more than 2.3 million in 2016. She leads a staff of 5 people in Rome and 24 local offices at a global level.

Ludwig Forrest is Philanthropy Advisor since 18 years at the King Baudouin Foundation’s Centre for Philanthropy and provides information, guidance and tailor-made help on strategic philanthropy to private donors, families, businesses and professional advisers who wish to engage in public benefit initiatives. Helping donors and beneficiaries to find effective solutions for philanthropic intentions, and fostering and simplifying the European cross-border giving environment by promoting the Transnational Giving Europe network are his main objectives. Ludwig is highly involved at the European Foundation Centre, advocate at national and EU-level, and publicist and speaker/moderator at international conferences. Also he organized and coordinated the three editions of the Philanthropy Day in Brussels and in 2017, the first edition of the Spring of Philanthropy gathering more than 1500 persons from Belgium and Europe interested in Philanthropy.

Graduated at Zurich University, since 1990 he is the Director of the Limmat Stifung, an umbella foundation specialized in international development and education projects. Author of researches and publications in the field of demography, he also performs consulting activities for foundations. Since 2007, he is cofounder and member of the Zurich Roundtable on philanthropy. Since 2013 he is the President of proFonds, the Swiss Associations for Public Interest Foundations.

Dr Rupert Graf Strachwitz has been involved with not-for-profit organizations for well over 30 years as a volunteer, staff member, board member, consultant, and researcher, and lecturer. Since 1997, he has been the director of the Maecenata Institute for Philanthropy and Civil Society. From 1989 to 2011, he was also managing director of Maecenata Management, a consultancy that specializes in foundations and associations, corporate citizenship and philanthropy. Today, he is also the Executive Director of the Maecenata Foundation, which was created in 2010 as an umbrella and legal body for the Maecenata Institute and three other programmes: Transnational Giving, Europe Bottom-Up, and the Tocqueville Forum. From 1999 to 2002, he served as member of the German Federal Parliament Commission on Civic Action. He chaired the European Policy Working Group of Europa Nostra (2004-2010), and sat on the board of the Fondazione Cariplo, Milan (2000-2007), and a number of other nongovernmental organizations at home and abroad.    He has around 500 publications, in German as well as in English, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, and Polish to his name: these include books and articles on foundation issues as well as cultural heritage, cultural policy, the third sector, and civil society. He studied Political Science, History, and History of Art at Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, USA, and Munich University.

Debora Guidetti is an independent consultant with international experience. Recently, she worked with partners like Ariadne, OSJI, Eurocities or Citizens For Europe. She also offered her skills pro-bono to civil society initiatives like Vox Public, ENAR or the Campaign Accelerator, a Paris based incubator of civic mobilisations founded by Guillaume Bonnet with whom she is now developing a training for European foundations. Previously, she managed the anti-discrimination work of the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIFE) focusing on Western Europe for five years. In 2008-2011, she managed the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM), a grant-making initiative of the Network of European Foundations. Formerly, she worked for UNESCO in Cuba and Mexico and for Handicap International Belgium. She studied international relations, political sciences, culture and development studies, in Italy (Padua), France (Sciences-Po Paris), and Belgium (University of Leuven). 

Lee Karuri is a leading Architect, business leader and an entrepreneur who has passion for Kenya as well as Africa’s economic and socio development. He is a founder Director of Dimensions Architects and Interior Designers, a leading firm of architects in East Africa. He served as Founder Chairman of Home Afrika upto June 2016, a leading Real Estate Development Company listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. He also served as the Chairman of Architectural Association of Kenya and today chairs the College of Fellows of the association. He is also the Chairman of Resorts and Cities a company developing Golf Resorts in Kenya. He has participated actively in the last 14 years as a member of key national organizations that champion Kenya’s Economic Development Agenda. These include the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA),the umbrella body of the business community in Kenya where he served as Chairman. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of KEPSA Foundation.In addition he has served as a member of the Transparency International, Kenya Chapter and also chaired the DANIDA advocacy fund for Kenya. Lee also served as a member of the National Steering Committee of Kenya’s Vision 2030. In addition, he served as a member of the National Committee that developed the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) that was the basis of Kenya’s growth and development agenda between 2003 and 2007. He has been honored in Kenya with the title Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW) award by H.E former President Mwai Kibaki for distinguished national service. Lee served as an advisor to the former president. On community service, he champions the socio transformation and empowerment agenda in Kenya. To this end, he chairs the governing council of the Africa International University based in Nairobi. Lee is a devout born again Christian and serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Parklands Baptist Church where he attends with his family. Lee together with his wife Consolata and their children Diana and William founded Mwangaza Trust, a foundation which supports vulnerable individuals and families in education, food security, economic empowerment and spiritual growth.

Graduated in International Relationships at Università Cattolica in Milan, Chiara Maria Lévêque is Philanthropy Advisor of Fondazione Lang Italia, focusing on giving strategies for Foundations and Philanthropists, Theory of Change and social impact assessment. She lectures for universities and corporates and is specialized in partnership with Italian and international foundations, thanks to her experience on back office research and to dozens of missions abroad. For 10 years she has been a volunteer for the Italian Red Cross with management roles at regional level, and she is cofounder and councillor for a charity working on international cooperation.

Alberto Lidji is Global CEO of the Novak Djokovic Foundation.  The Foundation focuses on early childhood education and development and is registered in the USA, UK, Serbia and Italy.  Globally, it collaborates closely with Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child, where it launched the Djokovic Science and Innovation Fellowship in 2016; the World Bank through the 'Early Wins for Lifelong Returns' initiative; and with UNICEF through their Goodwill Ambassador Programme. In Serbia, the Foundation builds preschools, delivers high quality teacher training and provides solid parenting skills, always with a focus on the most mariginalised, at-risk and disadvantaged children. Alberto's earlier career was in capital introduction in the private sector and he then gradually made the leap into impact investing and the world of philanthropy.  Prior to joining the Novak Djokovic Foundation he was at the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation -- a global organisation operating in 140 countries -- and at Trinity College at Cambridge University, which has an endowment of circa $1bn. Alberto has extensive experience in advising UHNWIs on their philanthropic strategies. Originally from Buenos Aires, Alberto has lived in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Luxembourg and, now, London for the past 21 years.  He holds degrees from Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, is passionate about impact investing, enjoys equestrian sports and lives in London with his wife and two young daughters.

Lecturer within Gruppo UBI on Family Business (asset protection, generational transfer, Family and Corporate Governance,  Planning and Protection of Business and Family Wealth). Lecturer ALTIS (Università Cattolica di Milano) at the Master on Family Business. Lecturer and Scientific Co-Director for the Master by Università Cattolica di Bergamo, Fondazione Realmonte and Consiglio Notarile Bergamo “The Trust and other tools to safeguard and manage wealth". Among its roles, he is Board Member and General Director of UBI Trustee S.A. Lussemburgo; Referent for Advisory to Family Business Advisory Top Private UBI Banca SpA; President of the Commission on "Generational Transfer" at ASAM (Associazione Studi Aziendali e Manageriali ) Università Cattolica di Milano; President Commission “Self caring & Philanthropy” by Cerif (Centro Ricerche Imprese Familiari), Università Cattolica di Milano. He has authored manifold publications on the topics of philanthropy, generational transfer, wealth planning.

Tris leads NPC’s work on innovation, researching and developing innovative approaches, new models and new ventures to create significant, long-term contributions to the capability and capacity of the social sector. He also leads on developing NPC’s relationships with core funders—philanthropists, foundations and businesses who have a shared commitment to transforming the social sector to achieve its full potential. Working with partners in the UK and globally, Tris develops initiatives to maximise the value of existing and emerging innovations in all sectors, through their application in the social sector. NPC’s focus within the area of innovation is on the use of digital technology and data to transform the delivery of activities, products and services, and to transform the relationships between funders and investors, the charities and social enterprises they support, and the people they all aim to serve. Tris helped initiate and develop NPC’s Digital Transformation Programme, which is currently focused on creating practical collaborations on digital technology in areas like the youth sector and women’s empowerment, and the Inspiring Impact programme which aims to improve impact practice across the UK charity sector. He is also a board member of Social Value International, a member of the Leap of Reason Ambassadors Community, and is a regular speaker at international conferences in Europe, Asia, Australia and the U.S. Before joining NPC in 2004, he worked in consulting, emerging technology research, and scientific and engineering innovation.

Secretary General of Fondazione Lang Italia since 2013, she manages the strategy and development of philanthropy advisory activities for grant-makers and philanthropists and the annual Lang Philanthropy Day. She began her career as and advisor on corporate social responsibility in 1997 at Gruppo Vita. She contributed to the creation of the first donor advised fund in Italy. For twenty years she has been a lecturer on corporate philanthropy and giving strategies for the community. She is member of the Advisory Board of Ashoka Italy and national councillor of Assifero. Graduated at Bocconi University, she was born in Milan in 1971.

Andrea Menini, Ph.D., is associate professor of Accounting in the Department of Economics and Management (DSEA) of the University of Padova. His research mainly examines the role of corporate disclosures and accounting transparency in capital markets and the role of governance in nonprofit organizations. His research works have been published, among others, on Review of Accounting Studies, The European Journal of Finance and Nonprofit Management and Leadership. He has also presented numerous research papers in international conferences, seminars and workshops. He has been awarded two times (in 2010 and 2012) with the Italian Philantropy Award and has received the best paper award at the Financial Reporting Conference 2012. He has been visiting scholar at The University of Michigan (2006), Brigham Young University-Utah (2013) and University of Delaware (2015). He teaches Intermediate Accounting and Business Plan and he supervises master and undergraduate students in their thesis and internships. He is Vice-president of the degree course of Science and Culture of Gastronomy and Foodservice, member of the Research Committee and Workshop Committee of the DSEA. Born in Verona, he earned his doctoral degree in Economics and management at University of Padova in 2008.

Mr. Shuichi Ohno was appointed as the President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in December, 2016. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director at the Nippon Foundation and lead various initiatives including social impact investment, corporate engagement, and international cooperation as the Executive Director in charge of the Social Innovation. He was also the Japan's sector representative of Social Impact Investment Taskforce established by the G8 and currently a member of Japan National Advisory Board of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group, successor to the Task Force. Mr. Ohno also serves as a Director of Japan Social Impact Investment Foundation (SIIF) as well as a Councillor of Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA). He had worked for the trading house, Marubeni Corporation, for almost thirty years. An economist by training, Mr. Ohno also worked for various economic and development organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank. He is a graduate of Kyoto University.

Born in Turin in 1960, from 1982 to 1997 she works in the family business, the Maglificio Bellia in Pettinengo (Liabel) first as Human Resources Director then as General Director, walking the company from a family to a managerial business and handing it over in 1997 to the American group Sara Lee. In the same years, she participates to the associative life of Associazione Maglie Calze and Federtessile, with roles as President of the Syndacate. From 1997 to 2003 she works in Milan and Rome dealing with strategic and organizational consultancy, with a specific focus on human resources and marketing (Gruppo Banca Sella, Agenzia Armando Testa, Gruppo CDC). She joins the reconstruction plan of Kosovo as Tutor of Missione Arcobaleno Fondi Privati, directly under the President Marco Vitale, in charge of supervising projects performed by NGOs. In 2003 she joins the board of Associazione CAF Onlus and actively participates to the relaunch and growth of an organization that for 37 years has been dealing with abused minors and their families. From September 2011 she is the CEO.

Thierry Renaud is the Director of the Impact and Sustainability Unit of MAVA Foundation. His role is to sustain MAVA’s vision over the long term, and especially after 2022 when the foundation will stop its operations. Thierry and his small team work across the foundation supporting its programme and partners in areas like organisational development, leadership and the emergence of a new generation of conservation leaders, sustainable conservation finance, and of course evaluation and learning. Thierry joined MAVA in 2009 and, before creating the impact and sustainability Unit in 2016, he used to be Manager and then Director of the West Africa Programme. Thierry also currently leads the operations of Fondation Hoffmann, a swiss family foundation. Thierry’s previous work includes coordinating an scientific expedition on Mount Hombori in Mali, delivering participatory democracy initiatives and developing organic cotton value chains from Burkina Faso.

Fabio Segura is Head of International Programs at Jacobs Foundation, where he is responsible for the strategic, financial, and operative direction of international programs across the African and Latin American continents, including the management of the foundation’s largest program to date: Transforming Education in Cocoa Communities (TRECC), a CHF 60 million strategy with the public and private sector to improve quality of education in Côte D’Ivoire. Previously he served as Senior Investment Manager at LGT Venture Philanthropy, where he was responsible to establish and grow the organization’s investments and operations in Latin America and the Caribbean from 2008 to 2015. Previously he has also served as consultant for the United Nations, including UNODC, UNEP, UNICEF, and FAO. Fabio Segura is Honoree of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World “TOYP” (Japan, 2008) and a recipient of the Colombian Ministry of Education’s Andres Bello Award for academic excellence.
He is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education Programs on Strategic Management and Financial Stewardship of Non Profit Organizations. He further holds a professional degree in Government and International Relations from the Externado de Colombia University.

Founder and President of AMI Trustee, Tiziano Tazzi has worked for thirty years as a manager in the financial and banking sector. He graduates in 1977 at Bocconi University and subsequently achieves an MBA at SDA bocconi. In 1982 he joind Citibank, then enters Eptaconsors as M&A Director in 1985.  In 1987 he joins the BNL Group as Director of the Participatory Service. From 1995 to 1999 he is Director of Planning and Organizational Development in BNL Investments SIM, leaving it to found Natam SpA, an Internet start-up specialized in systems of data analysis and comparison. In 2010 he creates AMI Trustee, specialized in the management of internal trusts, and becomes trustee of the Lang Trust (internal non profit trust) that in 2011 gave birth to Fondazione Lang Italia.