Find out more about the speakers
Vikram Doraiswami
Vikram Doraiswami is India’s High Commissioner in the UK since September 2022. He has spent over 30 years in the Indian Foreign Service, with foreign assignments in Hong Kong, Beijing, New York (at the Indian Mission to the UN), and Johannesburg in South Africa, where he was India’s Consul General. He has had Ambassadorial assignments in Uzbekistan and in the Republic of Korea, and as High Commissioner in Bangladesh. In India, he has served in the Prime Minister’s Office, including as Private Secretary to the Indian PM (in the mid-2000s), and has headed Divisions dealing with SAARC, North America, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and established a new Division for the Indo-Pacific in April 2019. His last assignment at headquarters was as Additional Secretary, responsible for International Organisations and Summits.
Emmanuelle Lachaussée
Emmanuelle Lachaussée began her professional career in 2001, when she joined the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs as a foreign service officer in the ‘Orient’ section (Chinese). Starting as Desk Officer for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the Under-Directorate for Far East Affairs (2001–2003), she then joined the United Nations and International Organizations Directorate as Desk Officer for Global Affairs and Development (2003–2006). From 2006 to 2009, she worked at the French Development Agency (Agence française de développement) before going to New York as a negotiator within the French Permanent Representation to the United Nations (2009–2011).
Following an assignment in Paris (Deputy Director for Far East Asia, 2011–2015), Ms. Lachaussée returned to the United States, this time as Press Counsellor and Spokesperson at the French Embassy in Washington (2015–2019). From 2019 to 2023, she was posted at the French Permanent Representation to the United Nations in Geneva, where she served as Human Rights Advisor (2019–2021) and Deputy Permanent Representative (2021–2023).
Back in Paris in 2023, she served as Deputy Director for Environment and Climate within the Directorate General for Globalization and Partnerships, before joining Minister Stéphane Séjourné’s cabinet in January 2024 as Deputy Director. On 16 October 2024, she was appointed Deputy Director General for Political and Security Affairs.
Ann Pettifor
Ann Pettifor is a political economist and author who writes and speaks on the global financial and economic system, money and monetary policy (in particular interest rates), and the UK economy. Her latest book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and the Planet (Verso Books, 2026), examines how global financial markets shape the price of essentials and contribute to the high cost-of-living and climate crises, and outlines proposals to bring finance under democratic control.
William Roos
William Roos joined the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as Managing Director for Corporate Strategy in September 2025, with overall responsibility for formulating corporate strategy. This includes advising the President on strategic options for the Bank and developing the Bank’s core strategic documents.
Mr Roos previously worked as Assistant Secretary for Multilateral, Development and Trade Affairs at the French Treasury, and as co-chair of the Paris Club and the G20 International Financial Architecture Working Group. Prior to that, he served as Director for France on the Board of Directors of the EBRD, as Economic Counsellor for Southern Africa at the Embassy of France in Pretoria, and as Head of the International and Domestic Macroeconomic Policy Department at the French Treasury.
