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Eka Tkeshelashvili is a distinguished visiting fellow with GMF’s Transatlantic Democracy Working Group (TDWG). She works on anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine and provides expertise on Georgian civil society and the geostrategy of the Black Sea region.

Tkeshelashvili previously served as Georgia’s deputy prime minister, minister of justice, minister of foreign affairs, National Security Council secretary, and state minister for reintegration. She also established and led the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine and the Support to Anti-Corruption Campion Institutions, the two largest international assistance programs dedicated to countering corruption in Ukraine. 

Tkeshelashvili is a professor at Kyiv’s Civil and Political School and at Tbilisi’s Black Sea University, and leads the Georgian Institute for Strategic Studies. She holds a master’s degree in international law from Notre Dame Law School, a certificate in human rights law from Oxford University, and a diploma in law from Tbilisi State University.

Ayleen Cameron is a research assistant at the Strategic Democracy Initiatives (SDI) at GMF, where she provides programming and research support. She coordinates international networks of democracy experts, including a group of leading specialists on Ukrainian governance reforms. 

Cameron graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University, receiving a bachelor's degree in international relations with a focus on international security. As a part of her coursework, she spent a semester studying at University College London’s School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies. She has regional experience in the former Soviet Union, and her interests include anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine and Central Asia. 

Caroline Rabideau is a trainee at GMF’s Transatlantic Democracy Working Group (TDWG). She provides programming and research support, and helps coordinate the activities of the American Autocracy Working Group, which aims to apply lessons from authoritarian political movements worldwide to organized efforts to undermine democracy in the United States.

Rabideau graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies with an emphasis in Europe. While studying, she held internships at the US Department of State and the European Institute for Peace. She studied in Brussels at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, where her coursework focused on transatlantic security, gender politics, and EU enlargement.

Tara Hariharan is managing director of global macro research at NWI Management LP, a New York-based hedge fund. She leads top-down analysis of economic activity, policy, and macro-political issues for countries worldwide, with a focus on the United States, Europe, and China. She created NWI’s proprietary “macro dashboard” to identify strategic investment opportunities in fixed income, foreign exchange, equities, and commodities.

Hariharan regularly presents her assessments of China’s economy and US-China relations to senior US policymakers and International Monetary Fund representatives. A seasoned public speaker, she is featured on CNBC and Bloomberg Television, and speaks at forums on global macroeconomics, the Chinese and European economies, and emerging markets.

Hariharan was a 2014 Marshall Memorial fellow, a 2016 American Council on Germany (ACG) young leader, a 2022 Economic Club of New York fellow, and a 2023 Atlantic Council Millennium Leadership fellow. She is now an ACG board member, a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Economic Club of New York and the Inter-American Dialogue.

Hariharan holds a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in anthropology from Princeton University and a graduate certificate in international relations from Harvard Extension School.

Nataliia Katser-Buchkovska, energy security and transition expert, Member of Parliament of Ukraine, 2014-2019, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Sustainable Development, Strategy, and Investment of the Committee of Ukrainian Parliament. Co-author of systemic economic and energy laws such as on natural gas and electricity markets, on the regulator of energy services markets.

Co-founded Green Resilience Facility investment vehicle to enable sustainable finance flow to rebuild a greener, technologically advanced and sustainable Ukraine, following the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). GRF aims to decrease CO2 emissions, generating long-term, sustainable returns for investors. We are planning to register under Luxembourg Green Financial Centre regulation. 

She is a graduate from Harvard Kennedy School, Atlantic Council Millennium Fellows, welcome speaker at top world events such as WEF, CERAWeek, BloomberNEF, Global Energy Summit, and published analytical articles in the Financial Times, Atlantic Council, and KyivPost; she is quoted by the BBC, Bloomberg.

Larysa Marchenko is Partner, Strategy, and Transactions, Ukraine Reconstruction International Lead at EY.

Larysa is a Partner in Strategy and Transactions. She has more than 20 years of experience in supporting primarily foreign private investors and IFIs in their decision-making regarding investments in Ukraine. The team of consultants under Larysa’s leadership performs market studies, operational, commercial, financial and ESG due diligence, feasibility studies. She is also maintaining constant dialogue with governments, IFIs, dedicated funds and other donors in their efforts to design and support Ukraine’s reconstruction. 

Larysa will present the results of the survey conducted by EY among private investors. The goal of the survey was to understand how opportunities in Ukraine are currently being evaluated, the impact of the war on investment decisions, and the necessary developments to catalyze investment during the war and after.   

Henrik Winther is the Director of the Department of European Neighborhood at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Henrik's distinguished career in diplomacy and international relations began in April 2006 when he was appointed as Head of Section in the Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In September 2007, he transitioned to the European Policy Department, continuing in the role of Head of Section. By June 2008, Henrik advanced to the position of Advisor in the Policy Unit of EU High Representative Javier Solana at the Council of the European Union.

His expertise and leadership skills led to his appointment as Deputy Head of Mission at the Danish Embassy in Tehran in September 2009. After serving there, he returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 2012 as a Senior Advisor in the Executive Secretariat. His trajectory continued upward when, in August 2014, he took on the role of Senior Advisor at the Prime Minister's Office.

In August 2016, Henrik was appointed Deputy Head of Mission at the Danish Embassy in Moscow, further solidifying his experience in international diplomacy. He then served as Deputy Director of the Department of European Neighborhood at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs starting in August 2020. His contributions and leadership in this role were recognized, and in September 2022, he was promoted to Director of the Department of European Neighborhood.

Since September 2017 Mark Speich is State Secretary for Federal, European and International Affairs of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia as well as the state’s plenipotentiary to the Federal Government. 

State Secretary Mark Speich is Chair of the German Delegation to the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). He is also Chair of the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX), member of the Bureau of the CoR and member of the CoR-EPP-Bureau. In his position as CIVEX-Chair, State Secretary Mark Speich is member of the Fit for Future-Platform of the European Commission and he is a delegate to the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe. 

Moreover, Speich was appointed Co-Chair of the CDU‘s Commission on International Affairs. 

Prior to this role he was CEO of Vodafone Foundation and the Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications, Vodafone’s corporate think tank, respectively from 2008 to 2017. Before joining Vodafone Speich served as Director of Policy Planning to the Majority Leader in the German Bundestag and as director of Programmes for the Herbert-Quandt Foundation. In the years 1997 and 1998 he was Personal Advisor to the President of Bonn University. He started his career in the political advisory staff of the CDU’s secretary general in 1995. Speich was educated at Collegium Josephinum Bonn, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge (MPhil) and the University of Bonn (Ph.D.) where he read Modern History, Political Science and Constitutional Law.