THE WORLD FORUM ADVISORY BOARD
Secretary Hillary Clinton
Honorary Chairwoman
Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent over five decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and presidential candidate. As 67th U.S. Secretary of State, her “smart power” approach to foreign policy repositioned American diplomacy and development for the 21st century. Clinton played a central role in restoring America’s standing in the world, reasserting the United States as a Pacific power, imposing crippling sanctions on Iran and North Korea, responding to the Arab Awakening, and negotiating a ceasefire in the Middle East. Earlier, as First Lady and Senator for New York, she traveled to more than 80 countries as a champion of human rights, democracy, and opportunities for women and girls; she also worked to provide health care to millions of children, create jobs, and support first responders who risked their lives at Ground Zero. In her historic 2016 campaign for President of the United States, Clinton won 66 million votes. She is the author of ten best-selling books, host of the podcast You and Me Both, founder of the global production studio HiddenLight Productions, a producer of the Broadway Musical “Suffs”, Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, and a Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University where she co-founded the Institute of Global Politics. She and former U.S. President Bill Clinton have one daughter, Chelsea, three grandchildren: Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper.
Geoffrey Robertson
Member of the Advisory Board
Geoffrey Robertson AO KC is one of the world’s most distinguished human rights lawyers, a formidable legal mind whose career spans decades of groundbreaking work in international law, constitutional reform, and freedom of expression. Born in Sydney in 1946 and educated at the University of Sydney and Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Robertson was called to the bar in 1973 and became a Queen’s Counsel in 1988. He is the founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers in London, now the largest human rights practice in Europe. He has mentored some of today’s most influential legal and political figures, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and internationally acclaimed human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. Robertson has been involved in numerous landmark cases, defending clients such as Salman Rushdie during the fatwa crisis, Julian Assange, and former Brazilian President Lula da Silva, while also contributing to the prosecution of notorious leaders like General Pinochet and Hastings Banda.
He served as a UN appeal judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and has appeared before the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. His legal advocacy has extended to advising governments on constitutional law and advocating for justice in cases of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. His acclaimed books include The Justice Game, Crimes Against Humanity, and The Tyrannicide Brief, which have shaped public and legal discourse on justice, free speech, and accountability.
Maria Ressa
Member of the Advisory Board
Maria Ressa is a Filipino-American journalist, author, and press freedom advocate who co-founded Rappler, the Philippines' leading digital news outlet known for its investigative reporting and critical coverage of government abuses.Born in Manila in 1963, she moved to the U.S. at age 10 and later graduated from Princeton University. Ressa spent nearly two decades at CNN, serving as bureau chief in Manila and Jakarta, and became one of Southeast Asia’s foremost investigative reporters on terrorism. In 2012, she launched Rappler, which quickly gained prominence for exposing disinformation networks and documenting the violent anti-drug campaign under President Rodrigo Duterte. Her fearless journalism led to multiple arrests and legal battles, including a 2020 cyberlibel conviction widely condemned as politically motivated. Despite these challenges, she continued her advocacy for press freedom, culminating in her being awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression. She has authored several books, including How to Stand Up to a Dictator (2022), and currently serves as a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, focusing on the intersection of technology and democracy. Her unwavering commitment to truth and accountability has made her a global symbol of resistance against authoritarianism and the erosion of democratic values.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Member of the Advisory Board
Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian-British journalist, historian, and one of the most prominent pro-democracy voices opposing Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. Educated at Cambridge University, Kara-Murza began his career as a political correspondent in Moscow before rising to international prominence through his fearless advocacy for democratic reform, human rights, and government accountability in Russia. A close associate of the late opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he played a key role in lobbying for the Magnitsky Act - landmark U.S. legislation targeting corrupt and abusive Russian officials with sanctions. Kara-Murza survived two near-fatal poisonings in 2015 and 2017, widely believed to be state-sponsored, yet he continued his activism undeterred. In 2022, following his public condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he was arrested and sentenced to 25 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of treason and “discrediting the Russian army,” drawing widespread international condemnation. His commentaries from prison earned him the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Also a filmmaker, he directed powerful documentaries such as They Chose Freedom and Nemtsov, chronicling Russia’s democratic movement and its fallen leaders. After his release in 2024 as part of a prisoner exchange, Kara-Murza resumed his work with the Free Russia Foundation and other human rights organizations, remaining a symbol of intellectual resistance and moral courage in the face of repression.
Oleksandra Matviichuk
Member of the Advisory Board
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil society leader who heads the Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL), a Kyiv-based organization awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for its work documenting war crimes and defending democratic freedoms. Since co-founding CCL in 2007, she has led efforts to promote legal reform, monitor abuses by law enforcement and judiciary, and build civic engagement across Ukraine and the OSCE region. Matviichuk gained international recognition during the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, coordinating the Euromaidan SOS initiative, which provided legal aid and documented human rights violations. Following Russia's annexation of Crimea and the 2022 full-scale invasion, she and CCL have documented thousands of war crimes and advocated for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian officials for crimes of aggression. Her advocacy extends to international platforms, where she has called for justice and accountability, emphasizing the need for international support in addressing the overwhelming number of war crimes committed in Ukraine. Matviichuk's unwavering commitment to human rights and democracy has earned her numerous accolades, including the 2022 Right Livelihood Award, recognition as one of the Financial Times' 25 most influential women, and participation in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program at Stanford University. She continues to be a leading voice in the global fight for human rights, advocating for democratic reforms and the rule of law in Ukraine and beyond.
David Sinclair
Member of the Advisory Board
David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., AO, is world’s leading scientist on longevity and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, renowned for his pioneering research in aging and epigenetics. As co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research, Sinclair has significantly advanced our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that drive aging, particularly through his work on sirtuins and NAD+ metabolism. His "Information Theory of Aging" posits that aging results from the loss of epigenetic information, a hypothesis supported by his team's groundbreaking studies demonstrating the reversal of aging signs in mice via partial cellular reprogramming .
Sinclair's influential book, Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To, presents a provocative view of aging as a treatable condition, sparking both acclaim and debate within the scientific community . Beyond academia, he has co-founded several biotechnology companies, including Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by GlaxoSmithKline, and Life Biosciences, focusing on age-related therapies. Recognized by Time magazine as one of the "100 most influential people in the world," Sinclair continues to be a leading voice in the quest to extend human healthspan and lifespan.