Ann Apps is a lecturer in the Law School at University of Newcastle Law School and is also the Law School’s External Engagement Coordinator. Ann has been a full time member of the Law School staff since 2010. She currently teaches Contracts, Corporate Power and Social Responsibility and Co-operative Law and Governance. She has previously practised as a solicitor in regional New South Wales and has experience in property, commercial law and civil litigation. Ann has published in the area of co-operative law and the law relating to mutuals. She is currently researching the impact of regulation on co-operatives in Australia. Her research interests include co-operative law and governance, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and legal models for social enterprise.

Kaori Abe is the Programme Officer responsible for resource mobilization and partnership for FAO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok since 2015. She had lived and worked on Food Security, Natural Resource Management, Gender, and humanitarian agriculture livelihood projects in southern and eastern Africa, particularly Mozambique, Sudan and South Sudan for over 17 years always with the FAO before coming to work in the region. Her work currently focuses on the development of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization for FAO in Asia and the Pacific particularly with academia, civil society organizations, private sector, as well as, farmers organizations and cooperatives.

Dzhakshylykova Aizhan is currently the Head of Legal Department within Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Industry and Melioration, Kyrgyzstan. She worked as Senior Teacher on Municpal Law, Land Law, Theory of Government and Law at International University of Kyrgyzstan during 2013 and Head of Legal Coverage and Law Bodies Cooperation Department of the Mayor’s Office of Bishkek city during 2014, She is a graduate in International Business from International University of Kyrgyzstan. She attended a course in TUV Pineland, Ukraine according to the principle of management of safety and security of food products ISO 22000/HACCP and was given certificate “Consultant of Management of Safety and Security”.

Dr. Nandini Azad is a senior women leader in the cooperative movement. She is currently the Chairperson of the ICA-AP Women’s Committee and a member on the International Raiffeison Union board. She is the elected President of the Indian Cooperative Network for Women with a membership of over 5,00,000 poor women in the informal sector; a member of the National Cooperative Union of India’s Women’s Empowerment Committee; Board member of the National Women’s Credit Fund (Ministry of Women, Govt of India) and Chairperson of its Revitalization Committee. Dr. Azad holds a Ph.D from Syracuse University, USA and has worked extensively at senior levels with the Planning Commission of India, IFAD, ADB, UNDP, ILO, and FAO.

Mr. Keshav Prasad Badal holds the position of Chairman of the National Cooperative Federation of Nepal (NCFN). He is a former minister of Ministry of Industry, Nepal Government and is currently a Member of Parliament. Mr. Badal has been part of the cooperative movement for a long time as a cooperative leader who played a key role in drafting the Cooperative Act 1992. He has a BA in economics from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. Mr. Badal is an advisor at Nepal Agricultural Co-operative Central Federation Ltd. He was a coordinator at National Advocacy Center for Natural Resources and Chairman of the High Level Land Reform Commission of the Government of Nepal.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bao is the President of Vietnam Cooperative Alliance. Mr. Bao holds a Dr. Degree of Economics and served as Head of Planning Department of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRIBANK) of Thai Binh provine; Vice Director and then Director of Monetary Policies Department for State Bank of Vietnam and Chairman of the Board for AGRIBANK of Vietnam.

Mr. Ramesh Chand is the Acting Director and Registrar of Cooperatives within Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism in Fiji. Mr. Chand holds a Bachelors in Commerce majoring in Accounting & Management, Post Graduate Diploma in General Manager, and Masters in Business Bdministration. Mr. Chand has overall 24 years of experience at the Development of Cooperative Business.

Prof. Koo Chungok is the President of Korean Society for Cooperative Studies and serve on the Council for Cooperative Policy Deliberation under the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. She used to work for the National Credit Union Federation of Korea as a researcher before she moved to the university.

Li Chunsheng is the Vice President of the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Co-operatives (ACFSMC), holding the rank of Deputy Minister. Mr. Li is committed to promoting win-win cooperation and mutual development between cooperatives in the Asia-Pacific Region and around the world. During his long period of service, he worked with Helihe farm in Heilongjiang Province, Ministry of Forestry, and the State Council in China. In 1995, he joined ACFSMC as the Deputy Secretary General and Director of Farm-inputs Bureau. He later assumed office as the Secretary General and the Director of International Co-operation Department before being elected the Vice President of ACFSMC in 2000.

Nguyen Chi Dung is currently the Minister of Planning and Investment of Vietnam and a member of the National Assembly of Vietnam XIV tenure 2016-2021, belonging to the National Assembly delegation of Quang Triprovince. He was elected to the National Assembly of the XIV National Assembly in Quang Tri Province’s second election unit, including Dong Ha city, Quang Tri Town and Trieu Phong and Hai Lang Districts. In the Communist Party of Vietnam, he is currently a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, course XII, former Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee of Ninh Thuan.

Hyung-sik Eum is the Strategy and Statistics coordinator at the International Cooperative Alliance. He is a PhD Fellow at the Centre for Social Economy, University of Liège, Belgium. He has worked with the ILO and COPAC as a consultant on several issues concerning cooperatives and the social economy, particularly comparative studies on worker and social cooperatives, statistics on cooperatives, cooperative employment and institutionalisation of the social economy. He is author of “Cooperatives and Employment: Second Global Report” (CICOPA, 2017) and co-author of Cooperatives and Employment: A Global Report (CICOPA, 2014).

Ms. Dolly Goh is the Chief Executive officer of the Singapore National Co-operative Federation (SNCF), the APEX Body of the Co-operative Movement in Singapore since 2009. Ms. Goh brings with her many years of experience from the private sector where she was the President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific Region of a listed company. Her experience spans across varied cultures and many countries, working for and/or as director of boards of American, British, Japanese, Indian multi-national corporations and local companies. In 2005, Ms. Goh decided to leave the private sector to dedicate her time in the not-for-profit sector. She joined one of Singapore's largest charities as Chief Executive Officer. She successfully transformed the charity with IPC status into a "social enterprise" where fundraising was no longer required for sustainability as it carried out its charity mission. Ms. Goh has also played an active role as board member of several charities and private education institutions

Mr. W. Upali Herath joined Ceylon Administrative Service in 1970 as an Assistant Commissioner of Cooperative Development and served in different capacities including, The Principal, School of Cooperation of Sri Lanka and by 1987 became the Senior Deputy Commissioner and the Acting Commissioner, when he joined the ICA. During this period, he also held the posts of General Secretary of the National Cooperative Council of Sri Lanka and the Director of the ICA/SCC/NCC Project for Development of Cooperative Trainers in Sri Lanka. He served the ICA Regional Office in New Delhi as Advisor of HRD and Consumer Cooperative Development from 1987 up to 1998. He also served as a board member of the Cooperative Insurance Company and the COOPLIFE Insurance Company from 1999 to 2018, and became the Managing Director (2002 to 2008 and 2013 to 2018).

Le Minh Hoan is currently a member of the National Assembly of Vietnam XIII, XIV delegation of Dong Thap delegation, and Secretary of Dong Thap Provincial Party Committee. In 2014, the Dong Thap Party Executive Committee elected Le Minh Hoan- Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and as Chairman of Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee for the period 2010-2015. He was re-elected as the Secretary of the Dong Thap Provincial party Committee in 2015.

H.E. Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue is the Vice Prime Minister of Vietnam since April 2016. Mr. Hue was most recently the Head of the Economic Commission of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party, a position that he held from January 2013. He served as minister of finance between 2011 and 2012, and spent five years as Vietnam's Auditor General. Prior to his career in government, he was a Professor at the University of Finance and Accounting in Hanoi. Mr. Hue received his PhD from the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 1990.

Attorney Adolfo A. Ibañez was voted Chairperson of the NATCCO Network at the Organizational Meeting held right after the NATCCO General Assembly on April 16. He brings with him the pioneering spirit as he was the third Chairperson of the Network and has served as Chair for 1989-1992 and 1994-1996. He was also one of the incorporators when NATCCO registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April 23, 1987. He has served as Vice-Chairperson for 2015-2016; and Chairperson of the Mediation and Conciliation Committee from 2013-2015. Atty. Ibañez is a founding member of Region 8 COMELEC Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative (RECEMPCO) based in Tacloban City.

Mr. Balasubramanian (Balu) Iyer is the Regional Director for the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific. Balu worked in India in co-operative development before moving abroad to work on Asian regional concerns for overseas agencies. He has worked with the Asia Foundation, the International Development Exchange, ActionAid India, and the Aga Khan Rural Support Program; and served as Adjunct Faculty at Southern New Hampshire University. Balu has a degree in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, India; a Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from the Institute of Rural Management at Anand, India; Master in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley; and Masters in Community Development from Southern New Hampshire University.

A rural management professional from IRMA, he is passionate about working with the economically marginalized in their efforts to transform their lives and be self-reliant. His experience in the development sector extends over 15 years primarily with focus in development of producer owned organizations (cooperatives and producer companies). In his tenure as the Manager Dairy Cooperative Promotion in Cooperative Development Foundation helped promote, design and develop India's first all - women cooperative dairy enterprise in Mulukanoor, Karimnagar District, Andhra Pradesh. He also worked with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty on extending support to self-help groups of women in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh where they were enabled to manage the large self-sustaining food security program.

A rural management professional from IRMA, he is passionate about working with the economically marginalized in their efforts to transform their lives and be self-reliant. His experience in the development sector extends over 15 years primarily with focus in development of producer owned organizations (cooperatives and producer companies). In his tenure as the Manager Dairy Cooperative Promotion in Cooperative Development Foundation helped promote, design and develop India's first all - women cooperative dairy enterprise in Mulukanoor, Karimnagar District, Andhra Pradesh. He also worked with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty on extending support to self-help groups of women in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh where they were enabled to manage the large self-sustaining food security program.

A rural management professional from IRMA, he is passionate about working with the economically marginalized in their efforts to transform their lives and be self-reliant. His experience in the development sector extends over 15 years primarily with focus in development of producer owned organizations (cooperatives and producer companies). In his tenure as the Manager Dairy Cooperative Promotion in Cooperative Development Foundation helped promote, design and develop India's first all - women cooperative dairy enterprise in Mulukanoor, Karimnagar District, Andhra Pradesh. He also worked with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty on extending support to self-help groups of women in Srikakulam District, Andhra Pradesh where they were enabled to manage the large self-sustaining food security program.

Akira Kurimoto is Professor of Co-operative Program at the Institute for Solidarity-based Society at Hosei University, Tokyo and Director of Consumer Co-operative Institute of Japan. He served as Chair of the ICA (International Co-operative Alliance) Research Committee (2001-2005). He is serving as the Chair of the ICA Asia Pacific Research Committee, and the member of Steering Committee of the World Co-operative Monitor. He is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Co-operative Research Partnership (APCRP) since 2014

Mr. Naseer is the Commissioner of Cooperative Development Department and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies. In the past he has held positions of Senior Asst. Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Director (Development) in the National Youth Services Council, Commissioner (Operations & IT) in the Department of Registrar of Persons, and Deputy Controller in the SL Immigration & Emigration Department. He holds a Master of Public Management in Human Resource from the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), a Post Graduate diploma in Public Management from SLIDA, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Peradeniya.

Dr. Changhee LEE is a Director of ILO Country Office for Vietnam (September 2015-present). ILO Country Office for Vietnam is the largest UN agency in Vietnam, with more than 20 development cooperation projects and with 109 staff. He joined ILO HQ in Geneva in 1996 where he participated in a number of major global research programme on industrial relations. Between 2000 and 2006, he worked as an industrial relations specialist of the ILO’s East Asian team in Bangkok, Thailand, covering 10 East Asian countries. From 2006 till 2012, he worked as a senior industrial relations and social dialogue specialist in ILO Office for China and Mongolia, in Beijing, China. During his service in East Asia, he provided policy advices to tripartite industrial relations actors in East Asia on a wide range of industrial relations policy issues including tripartite social dialogue, collective bargaining, human resource management, wage policies and labour dispute settlement.

Dr. Abhilaksh Likhi has more than twenty five years of experience in the Indian Administrative Service, India's premier civil service. He is a Fulbright scholar; holds a Masters in International Public Policy from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA; and has a PhD in Development Communication from Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India. Since September 2018, he is posted as Joint Secretary, in the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmer’s Welfare in the Government of India at New Delhi. His assignment primarily entails policy formation and over all supervision/monitoring of procurement operation for pulses and oilseeds through the Central Nodal Agencies such as the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. He is also the Central Registrar for regulation enforcement and management of the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. Prior to this posting he served as Principal Secretary, Agriculture in the Government of the State of Haryana for over two years.

U Thaung Naing is currently the Deputy General of the Cooperative Department under the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation. The Cooperative Department operates mainly in organizing the Cooperative Societies, capacity building of cooperatives, seeking financial capital (ODA Loan, Grant, Aid & TA), microfinance business, and selling farm machines, with long term, hire purchase system,. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Yangon Institute of Economics.

Osamu Nakano is the Director of International Relations Department at Japan Workers’ Co-operative Union (JWCU), a position he has held since July 2017. He concurrently serves as a board member of JWCU. Osamu holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in comparative literature. After conducting historical research at New York University, he joined JWCU in 2014. He also serves as a staff member of the Japan Co-operative Alliance (JCA), an apex organization of all cooperative sectors in Japan, and as a visiting researcher at Tokyo University.

Ms. Burul Namazova is working as an expert in the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic (National Parliament) and involved in analyzing legislation, including legislation in the field of agriculture, agricultural cooperatives. She has a higher education in the field of economics and international relations. She has Сo-authored a study on agricultural cooperatives in 2013 for the National Institute of Strategic Studies, JICA, Bishkek. She has been collaborating with the Cooperatives Union of Kyrgyzstan on legal issues of cooperatives

Meriam binti Mat Nor is currently the Deputy Executive Chairman of Malaysia Co-operative Societies Commission (MCSC). She has been with MCSC for more than 30 years and served in various capacities such as regulatory and registration, investigation and enforcement, and business development of cooperatives in Malaysia. She is also a Board Member of MCSC and has been appointed to lead the task force for Amendment of Cooperative Societies Act 1993 and Malaysia Cooperative Societies Commission Act 2007.

Dr. Tokaraj Pandey is currently the Registrar at the Cooperative Department in Nepal. Prior to joining as the Registrar, Mr. Pandey served as a Chief Executive Officer at Kalaiya Sub Municipalities and Joint Secretary at Kathmandu Metro Politician office. From 2015-2017, Mr. Pandey served as a Director of the Department of Transport Management Nepal. He holds a PhD degree from the Tribhuban University of Nepal.

Rylan Peery has Co-founded and co-led international worker-owned technology co-operatives. He has transitioned from strong central executive leadership model to a participatory ownership model. He Serves as a business development strategist, a product designer and a financial liaison to the co-operative movement.

Bruno Roelants was appointed as Director General of ICA in April 2018. He has been involved in the cooperative movement for over 30 years. Bruno served as Secretary General of CICOPA, the sectoral Organisation of the ICA for industry and services from 2002 to 2018 and as the Secretary General of the regional organisation, CECOP CICOPA-Europe, since 2006. He has worked on development projects in China, India, and Eastern Europe. In 2002 he coordinated the co-operative movement’s negotiating group on the ILO Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives. He holds a Master’s degree in Labour Studies and has taught courses on cooperatives in Italy. A co-author of Cooperatives, Territories and Jobs (2011) and Capital and the Debt Trap – Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis (2013), Mr. Roelants has also led the report Cooperative Growth for the 21st Century (2013).

Ms. Renia C.Salinas, is currently one of the Country Managers of MyFINANCE Project of CDF Canada in Myanmar. Prior to this, she served as the Chief Executive Officer of VICTO National in the Philippines. Renia has been with cooperatives for the past 30 years and held various management capacities in the primary and in the federation of the Philippines. She was the Technical Advisor of World Council of Credit Unions for its two Projects in Afghanistan in 2004-2009. Renia graduated from Central Philippine University, Iloilo City and is a Certified Public Accountant by profession. She is the secretary of the Board of Trustees of Iloilo Peoples’ Habitat Foundation and was a member of the Board of Directors of Philippine Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas and the Internal Affairs Committee of Foundation for Sustainable Society

Stephen Sallun was appointed as the Registrar of Cooperative Societies Office within the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in 2017. He is currently the President of the University of Papua New Guinea Executive Master’s Program with over 350 members holding executive positions in the private and public offices in Papua New Guinea. Stephen Sallun is also on the College Board of Saint Joseph International; Catholic College and a member of the PNG Think Tank Group.

Trebor Scholz is a scholar-activist and Associate Professor for Culture & Media at The New School in New York City. His book Uber-Worked and Underpaid. How Workers Are Disrupting the Digital Economy (Polity, 2016) develops an analysis of the challenges posed by digital labor and introduces the concept of platform cooperativism as a way of joining peer-to-peer and co-op movements with online labor markets while insisting on communal ownership and democratic governance. Scholz is a member of the Barcelona Advisory Council on Technological Sovereignty. His articles and ideas have appeared in The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Le Monde, and The Washington Post.

Deric Soh is currently Assistant Registrar, Registry of Co-operative Societies within Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Mr. Soh previously has worked for GuocoLand Ltd as Manager, Retail Development; Singapore Telecommunications lLd as Manager, Mergers & Acquisition; NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd as Manager, Corporate Planning/ Investments and Singapore Civil Service as Finance Executive and Assistant Registrar.

Mr. Pham Tri Thuc is currently the Vice Chairman of Legal Committee of National Assembly, Vietnam. He is a graduate from General University of History, Bachelor of Law, college of supervision and master of law.

Robby Tulus is Chief Advisor of the Karl Albrecht Foundation. Robby Tulus pioneered the Credit Union Movement in Indonesia in the late 1960s, co-founded the Credit Union Central Organization in Indonesia, and subsequently the Asian Confederation of Credit Unions in 1971. He has served as managing director of CUCO Indonesia (Jakarta 1971-80), Training Specialist of ACCU (Seoul, Korea 1981-83), Asia Region Director of the Canadian Cooperative Association (Ottawa, Canada, 1983-1993), Senior Policy Advisor of the International Co-operative Alliance, and Regional Director for Asia Pacific of the International Co-operative Alliance (based in Geneva, New Delhi and Singapore 1996-2001). Robby is currently engaged in pioneering co-operative multi-stakeholder innovations as outgrowths of the Credit Union Movement in Indonesia.

Wangmo is currently working as the Chief Marketing Officer under Cooperatives Development Division, Department of Agricultural and Marketing and Cooperatives within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Bhutan. The division looks after the registration, development, regulation and monitoring of Farmer Groups (FGs) and Cooperatives throughout Bhutan. Ms. Wangmo has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from University of Canberra, Australia. She worked in Ministry of Education and was a Researcher in the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bhutan.