Admiral RK Dhowan is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the Defence Services Staff College and the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, USA. 

His illustrious career began with being adjudged the ‘Best Cadet’ and winning of the coveted ‘Telescope’ during his sea training onboard INS Delhi. He was commissioned in the Navy on 01 Jan 75 and went on to bag the ‘Sword of Honour’ for his course. He was baptized in the art of navigation when, as a young Lieutenant armed with a sextant and the keen eyes of an enthusiastic navigator , he sailed from the port of Riga in the Baltic Sea to the shores of Mumbai. With the induction of the Sea Harrier jump-jets into the Navy, he was selected to undergo the Sea Harrier Direction Course at Yeovilton, UK. His tenures at Indian Naval Air Squadron 300 and the aircraft carrier Vikrant shaped the future of direction specialization in the Navy. 

Important staff assignments held by the Admiral at Naval Headquarters during his distinguished career include Deputy Director Naval Operations, Joint Director Naval Plans, Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff. 

The Admiral has commanded three frontline warships of the Western Fleet -the missile corvette Khukri, the guided missile destroyer Ranjit and the indigenous guided missile destroyer Delhi. He also had the proud privilege of commanding the Eastern Fleet as Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet. 

The Admiral has commanded three frontline warships of the Western Fleet -the missile corvette Khukri, the guided missile destroyer Ranjit and the indigenous guided missile destroyer Delhi. He also had the proud privilege of commanding the Eastern Fleet as Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet. 

Admiral RK Dhowan (Retd) took over as the fifth Chairman of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi, which is India’s premier maritime think tank. The Foundation has benefited immensely from his vast experience in the Indian Navy in general and in specific, formulation of a wide range of maritime strategic publications. Such as IN Maritime Cooperation Roadmap (2014), IN Space Vision (2014), Indian Navy in the 21st Century: Maritime Security for National Prosperity (2014), IN Maritime Capability Perspective Plan (2015), IN Maritime Infrastructure Perspective Plan (2015), IN Indigenisation Plan (2015), Science and Technology Roadmap (2015), Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy (2015), Indian Maritime Doctrine (updated 2015), Maritime Heritage of India (2016) and United Through Oceans: International Fleet Review 2016. 

In his new role as both the practitioner and promoter of broader maritime thinking and fresh strategic perspectives, the Admiral has been lecturing extensively at all leading military colleges, think-tanks and academia in India, as well as at various apex-level institutions abroad, articulating his views on how the maritime strategic landscape has been changing in the world and the leading role India as a resurgent maritime nation would play in the Indo-Pacific region. Under his visionary articulation, the National Maritime Foundation is presently embarked on the mission for the development of strategies for the promotion and protection of India’s maritime interests, ranging from development of ports, shipping and shipbuilding to island development and renewable sources of ocean energy. In addition, various aspects of harnessing the ‘Blue Economy’ and their advocacy to all stakeholders, both Governmental and Non-Governmental. 

Commodore Sujeet Samaddar began his career as an Engineer Trainee with Tata Consulting Engineers, Mumbai. Commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1980, Samaddar held various staff, four command appointments and retired in 2009 as Principal Director Naval Plans. He has been an International Fellow at the JIIA, Tokyo and Admiral RD Katari Fellow at the USI, New Delhi. He is an alumnus of the United Nations University, Tokyo, University of Madras, Chennai, DSSC, Wellington; CAWS, Secunderabad and NIDS, Tokyo. He has been the Directing Staff at DSSC Wellington and CNW, Mumbai.

Post retirement he has served as Vice President Operations, NOVA Integrated Systems, a TATA Enterprise and Director and CEO of ShinMaywa Industries India Private Limited. Samaddar was Senior Consultant (Industry), NITI Aayog, Government of India until January 2019. He is presently Advisor at FICCI and Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Air Power Studies, New Delhi.

Peter Droege is a leading international urban sustainability expert on advanced urban policy, management, transport policy and strategy, urban design, city and regional planning and renewable infrastructure development. His academic career stretches from the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his position at the University of Tokyo as Urban Development Engineering Endowed Chair to his position as Lend Lease Chair and Professor of Urban Design at the University of Sydney, and Conjoint Professorship at the University of Newcastle’s School of Architecture and Built Environment. At the University of Liechtenstein he developed a highly influential Chair for Sustainable Spatial Development which he held over a period of eight years.

Sherman Teichman is Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Global Affairs at SaiU. A pioneer in education to promote global engagement, he is the founding director emeritus of the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University in Massachusetts (1985-2016). There in 2005 he created the ongoing ALLIES initiative, Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services, an immersive educational research and experiential program linking his Institute students with the cadets, midshipmen and faculty of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, The United States Military Academy, West Point, The United States Air Force Academy, and United States Coast Guard Academy.

As Emeritus, Teichman has also served as a Senior Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, at Harvard University’s Kennedy School; as a non-resident Research Associate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the Centre for International Studies at Oxford University; as a Senior Fellow of the Liechtenstein Institute for Strategic Development; as a Senior Fellow at The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal; and as the inaugural Fellows Mentor for the Albright Institute at Wellesley College.

He is a strategic adviser for the Human Rights Foundation, where he created the Oslo Scholars Program and he serves on the Advisory Boards of Beyond Conflict; Combatants for Peace; the Council of European Studies; International Student/Youth Pugwash; The Mind/Brain Center on War and Humanity; Mistral; Music for Life International; RefugePoint; and the VII Foundation. He is a member of the New America “Engaging Democracy Disinformation Working Group.”

Rina Barouch-Bentov is the Scientists Lead and Alliance Coordinator Co-Lead for Parvati Foundation, https://parvati.org/ Parvati Foundation started in Canada as an all-volunteer not-for-profit to end the threat of seismic testing in Canada’s Arctic Ocean. They are a multinational charitable organization with representation in 40 countries, working to create the world’s largest protected area to ensure a healthy future for all life on Earth. We believe that humanity and Nature are not separate and that regardless of race, gender, or stature our presence has immense positive impact when we choose to serve a world in need. Its shared voice includes heads of state, renowned advisors, subject matter experts from a wide range of fields including scientific, economic, technological, artistic, and media, next generation inheritors, and everyday citizens who wish to leave a light footprint.

MAPS, the Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary, declares the Arctic Ocean north of the Arctic Circle an international peace park, free from exploitation of all kinds, in perpetuity. It prohibits all activities harmful to the health of the vulnerable Arctic Ocean ecosystem and its sea ice.

Rina obtained degrees in Biology with Psychology and a PhD degree in Immunology from Bar Ilan University (Israel). Over the last 20 years she has worked in academic and research institutions in Israel and the US, and currently serves as a consultant scientist. Her core values in education, scientific research, and community service are focused on interconnectivity. She pursues this approach in her scientific work that includes exploring the interconnection among systems within the human body. Her love and appreciation for the harmony of humans and nature on our planet combined with her commitment to finding solutions motivated Rina to volunteer for Parvati Foundation. She brings her passion and experience as a scientist in support of the Foundation and in particular, to scientific research for MAPS - Marine Arctic Peace Sanctuary (MAPS) and increasing awareness throughout the larger community.

Vice Admiral Thomas J. Barrett is the Vice Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard on May 30, 2002. He serves as the Coast Guard's second in command, is the Agency Acquisition Executive, heads the Leadership Council, and co-chairs the Navy-Coast Guard Board, an inter-service policy coordination body. Prior to his appointment he served as the Commander, Seventeenth Coast Guard District in Juneau, Alaska, where he built close partnerships across all levels of government to advance Coast Guard program goals, especially relating to maritime safety of cruise ships, tank ships, and fishing fleet. He developed cooperative relationships with Northern Pacific nations that led to reduced incursions by foreign fishing vessels into the United States' Exclusive Economic Zone.

His first flag tour was as the Director of Reserve and Training at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. While there, he expanded reserve recruiting and emphasized diversity, restoring the services' reserve strength to its authorized 8000 member level.  He was instrumental in establishing the Coast Guard Leadership Development Center at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Vice Admiral Barrett's early duties include a tour aboard the High Endurance Cutter CHASE with service in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970. He also held a variety of staff positions in the legal and marine safety fields. He commanded the Coast Guard Support Center at Kodiak, AK. While at Kodiak, he established key partnerships with local governments, supporting education and quality of life and was recognized by the Alaskan Legislature for his service to the Kodiak community.  He later served as Deputy Chief, Office of Personnel and Training, and as Deputy Commander, Maintenance and Logistics Command Atlantic.

Dr. Dyhia Belhabib is a Program Manager of Fisheries and Principal Investigator of I-Sea Fisheries at Ecotrust Canada, an OceanCanada partner. Dyhia works on fisheries access and policy and tries to integrate the notions of adjacency, fairness, and accountability as she works on multidimensional issues relating to community and industrial fisheries in Canada and globally. Since she believes in the power of information democracy, she leads a project that records the criminal activity of high mobility fishing vessels, researches the economics of fishing and fish-related crimes and their impacts on small-scale communities in the world, and engages with governments and other stakeholders to implement research findings in policy.

Dyhia mobilizes interdisciplinary research through academic scholars and community partners to yield novel insights and realize meaningful changes. This requires not only “hard data,” but also a nuanced understanding of the economic and political landscape of the countries she investigates. In addition, she explores the notions of social finance, decolonization of fisheries and natural resource sectors, and the economics of access rights. Dyhia’s work largely focuses on adding transparency and insight through extensive research on fisheries in Canada and abroad. In Western Canada, this translates into analyzing the impacts of market driven fisheries management tools on coastal communities, and researching sustainable alternatives that will allow communities to re-capture the benefits from their adjacent resources.

Dyhia’s research on assessing the economics of fish crimes has had a significant impact on policy, notably in Africa. Her research has been featured numerous times in various media, notably The New York Times. A strong believer in science communication and policy engagement, she thinks of herself as one of those researchers, economists, and policy advocates who reside at the bottom of the ivory tower. Dyhia completed her PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC, in 2014, just hours before she had a baby.

Dyhia is also on the board of the National Centre for Fisheries and Aquaculture Research of Algeria and the FishTracker initiative, is the editor on the topic of illegal fishing as a trans-national crime for the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, and a contributing author for the Africa chapter of the UN Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Dyhia maintains a Researcher’s Diary, writing about her research findings in accessible language.

Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VM (Gallantry) retired from Indian Air Force in October 2006 as Vice Chief of Air Staff after 40 years of a highly distinguished career. During the 1971 Indo-Pak war, he saw active service and flew 22 missions into enemy territory. For his outstanding contribution to the war effort, he was bestowed the gallantry award of Vayu Sena Medal (Gallantry).

Post retirement, he has served in: - Government’s Review Committee on DRDO - Civil Aviation Committee for modernization of Airports & Nav Systems. - Indo-Israeli Strategic Dialogue. - MD & CEO of TATA Group aerospace company, NOVA Integrated Systems. - CII’s National Committee on Defence.

Currently he is involved with the Global Zero movement on Nuclear Disarmament. - RAND Corp Strategic Dialogue with IAF-USAF; the Aspen Institute India (Ananta), and Sr Advisor TATA Gp in Aerospace and Defence strategies.

Dr. Sylvia A. Earle, is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist, government official, and director for corporate and non-profit organizations including the Kerr McGee Corporation, Dresser Industries, Oryx Energy, the Aspen Institute, the Conservation Fund, American Rivers, Mote Marine Laboratory, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Rutgers Institute for Marine Science, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and Ocean Futures.

Formerly Chief Scientist of NOAA, Dr. Earle is the Founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc. (DOER), Founder of the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) / Mission Blue, Chair of the Advisory Council of the Harte Research Institute, inspiration for the Ocean in Google Earth, leader of the NGS Sustainable Seas Expeditions, and the subject of the Emmy® Award Winning Netflix documentary, Mission Blue. She has a B.S. degree from Florida State University, M.S. and PhD. from Duke University, 27 honorary degrees and has authored more than 200 scientific, technical and popular publications including 13 books (most recently Blue Hope in 2014), lectured in more than 90 countries, and appeared in hundreds of radio and television productions.

She has led more than 100 expeditions and logged more than 7,000 hours underwater including leading the first team of women aquanauts during the Tektite Project in 1970, participating in ten saturation dives, most recently in July 2012, and setting a record for solo diving in 1,000 meters depth. Her research concerns marine ecosystems with special reference to exploration, conservation and the development and use of new technologies for access and effective operations in the deep sea and other remote environments.

Her special focus is on developing a global network of marine protected areas, “Hope Spots,” to safeguard the living systems that provide the underpinnings of global processes, from maintaining biodiversity and yielding basic life support services to providing stability and resiliency in response to accelerating climate change.

Her more than 100 national and international honors include the 2013 National Geographic Hubbard Medal, 2011 Royal Geographical Society Patron’s Medal, 2011 Medal of Honor from the Dominican Republic, 2009 TED Prize, Netherlands Order of the Golden Ark, Australia’s International Banksia Award, Italy’s Artiglio Award, the International Seakeepers Award, the International Women’s Forum, the National Women’s Hall of Fame, UNEP 2014 Champion of the Earth, 2014 Glamour Woman of the Year, Academy of Achievement, Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year, UN Global 500, and medals from the Explorers Club, the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, Lindbergh Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, Sigma Xi, Barnard College, and the Society of Women Geographers.

Laura Florance is the Executive assistant to the Head of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, National Security College, College of Asia and the Pacific

Dr. Vijayalakshmy Gupta, an officer of Indian Defence Accounts Service 1974 batch served in various capacities in different Departments & Ministries & attached offices of the Govt of India including the Ordnance Factory Board , Border Roads ,RCPO, and DRDO. She served at the higher echelons of Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Communications & IT , Ministry of Women & Child Development etc.

She superannuated as Secretary Defence Finance in the Ministry of Defence. Subsequently she was appointed as a Member in Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. She has had varied experience in core areas of administration and finance in Defence, Telecom and Social Sector in a career spanning over 40 years. She is a Recipient of the Colonel PyareLal Gold medal for the Best Thesis on Defence and Industry Interface in R&D and Production for Achieving Self-Reliance in Military Hardware/Software in the 39th National Defence College Course. In the Ministry of Defence as Joint Secretary & Secretary she oversaw the financial management of the Defence outlay.

As Member Finance Telecom Commission, she chaired the 3G spectrum auction considered as a benchmark for transparent price discovery. As Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, she formulated policies of high social and economic impact for distributing the development dividend for women and children. Dr.Gupta says “The guiding principles that I have followed throughout my career in the Civil Service are integrity and unity of thought, word, and deed.”

Raghbendra Jha has been an active researcher in economics for more than four decades. He also contributed extensively to the policy debate through consultancies and other public engagements. He authored or edited more than 30 books/monographs with major publishers and authored more than 150 papers in leading scientific journals and other refereed outlets. He has been at the Australian National University since January 2001. Previously he taught at Columbia University and Williams College in the US, University of Warwick in the UK, Queen's University in Canada, and Delhi School of Economics, IIM Bangalore and IGIDR Mumbai in India and supervised many PhD students. He consulted extensively for international organizations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNESCAP, WIDER and UNRISD and is on the editorial board of major international journals.

Shobhana Joshi joined Indian Defence Accounts Service in 1979 and after a career span of almost 37 years in the Government of India; she retired as Secretary (Defence Finance). She also held the post of Controller General of Defence Accounts. She is an alumna of the prestigious National Defence College, Delhi and was awarded M.Phil. in Strategic and Defence Studies. She has also attended an Executive Education Program at the Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA.

She has done several assignments in the Government of India, both in defence and civil Ministries. Some of the assignments include Deputy Secretary (Ministry of Human Resource Development); in the Ministry of Defence she has served as Director (Finance), Finance Manager (Land Systems), Joint Secretary and Additional Financial Advisor, Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser (Acquisition) and Secretary (Defence Finance) She has been closely involved with various facets of policy formulation in Government, the executive decision making process and their financial interlink ages. Having served at various levels in Defence Finance in the Ministry of Defence she is fully conversant with the entire gamut of issues related to the security establishment on the Defence budget and financial analysis resource planning, expenditure management, project appraisal, cost benefit analysis and project monitoring. As a financial professional, she had the benefit of having an overall perspective of the decision-making process.

Lt Gen Arvinder Lamba PVSM, AVSM, retired as Vice Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army, with comprehensive experience in and understanding of the external and internal security environment, Perspective Planning, Force Transformation and Strategic Postulations. His operational experience includes participation in the 1971 conflict, multiple tenures in counter-insurgency operations, command of a strike corps and a front line division. With exposure to defense cooperation, military diplomacy, international relations and conflict prevention, he is currently engaged with Indian and international forums for strategic and security initiatives, defense analysis, and track II dialogues. The officer's academic record includes a PhD, MPhil, MA in International Affairs from King’s College, London, MSc in Defence Studies, and an MBA in International Marketing.

Vice Admiral Paul Maddison is Director of the UNSW Defence Research Institute. Although located at the UNSW Canberra at ADFA campus, Paul is responsible for enabling, facilitating and integrating UNSW’s ground-breaking defense research capacity across the whole of the university in both Sydney and Canberra. With a mandate to build deeper relationships and increased collaboration with Commonwealth, State, industry and international partners, the Defence Research Institute aims to strengthen UNSW’s position as Australia’s leading defense university, and to play a defining role in accelerating the delivery of capability for the Australian Defence Force.

Paul is a graduate of Canada’s Royal Military College and served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 37 years. He commanded at all levels, both at sea and ashore, and retired in 2013 from his appointment as Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Paul returned to public service in 2015 and served until 2019 as High Commissioner of Canada to Australia, with accreditation to seven Pacific island countries. In this role, Paul was tireless in his pursuit of strengthened bilateral relations between Australia and Canada, with a focus on collaboration in the public policy, trade, social and security sectors.

Dr Rob McLaughlin researches, publishes, and teaches in the areas of Law of Armed Conflict, Law of the Sea, Maritime Security Law and Maritime Law Enforcement, and Military Law. He routinely engages in research activities, and course development and delivery, with the ICRC, the Australian Red Cross, the International Institute for Humanitarian Law, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Rob came to the ANU College of Law after a career in the Royal Australian Navy as a Seaman officer and a Legal officer. Consequently, his research interests are primarily focussed around issues of practical operational significance.

His legal roles included as the Fleet Legal Officer, the Strategic Legal Adviser, as a Counsel Assisting the HMAS SYDNEY II Commission of Inquiry, Director Operations and International Law, and Director Naval Legal Service.

Professor Rory Medcalf has been Head of the National Security College (NSC) at the Australian National University since January 2015. He has led the expansion of the College into policy engagement and futures analysis, as well as education, executive development and research, repositioning the College as 'more than a think tank'.

His professional background involves three decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, academia and journalism, including as founding Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute from 2007 to 2015.

In government, Professor Medcalf worked as a senior strategic analyst with the then Office of National Assessments (now the Office of National Intelligence), Canberra’s peak intelligence analysis agency. He was also an Australian diplomat, with wide experience including a posting to New Delhi, a secondment to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, truce monitoring after the civil conflict in Bougainville and policy development on Asian security institutions. He has contributed to three landmark reports on nuclear arms control: the 1996 Canberra Commission, 1999 Tokyo Forum and 2009 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament. His earlier work in journalism was commended in Australia’s leading media awards, the Walkleys, in 1991.

Professor Medcalf has been prominent in developing Australia’s relations with India.  He has been recognised as a thought leader internationally for his work on the Indo-Pacific concept of the Asian strategic environment, as articulated in his 2020 book Contest for the Indo-Pacific (released internationally as Indo-Pacific Empire).

Professor Medcalf was a member of the expert panel providing independent advice on the Australian Government’s 2016 Defence White Paper. He is chief investigator in a 2018-2021 research project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, examining the risks to nuclear stability from new submarine-detection technologies. He is also chief investigator in a 2019-2021 research project funded by the Australian Department of Defence , titled 'Made for Multipolarity: Operationalising an Indo-Pacific strategy in the Indian Ocean'.

He is a member of the editorial boards of Asia Policy and the Australian Journal of International Affairs. He has been a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy with the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and retains affiliations as a Nonresident Fellow with the Lowy Institute and the Seapower Centre of the Royal Australian Navy. His is a member of the Board of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations and the ASEAN Regional Forum Register of Experts and Eminent Persons.

General Tom Middendorp, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands (Ret) is the Chair of the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS). Previously, he served as the Netherlands Chief of Defense for five and a half years and after 38 years of serving his country. As the Chief of Defense he was the most senior military advisor to the Minister of Defense, responsible for the readiness, the international cooperation and the modernization of the Dutch Armed Forces, as well as the planning and execution of its military deployments. He commanded troops at all levels, led a large multinational task force in the south of Afghanistan and was involved in over twenty different military missions as the Director of Operations. General Middendorp has extensive operational and strategic experience of building unity of effort with different nations, governments, companies and many other stakeholders in order to deal with a wide range of security risks. He organized two large Future Forces Conferences where he introduced an ecosystem approach to security and offered “Defense” as a testbed for innovation, resulting in many promising new initiatives. His current occupation as an independent senior expert on defense and security allows him to continue his work on the impact of climate change on the security environment and on the role the military can play in addressing climate change.

Dr Greg Nakano, a Naval Academy graduate and officer of Marines, served as an infantry platoon commander during the first Gulf War and intelligence officer during the 1991 Los Angeles riots. Embracing the Art of War dictum to “know yourself and know the enemy,” he spent three years studying Mandarin at Fudan University and one year studying Farsi at the University of Tehran before enrolling in Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Hoping to embody Abraham Lincoln’s approach of destroying one’s enemies by making them friends, he joined USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance after 9/11. As part of USAID/OFDA’s military liaison team, he facilitated the provision of humanitarian assistance by civilian and military stakeholders to disaster survivors in Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Guatemala, and Philippines.

 In 2004, he created the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course (JHOC), a primer on US Government coordination during overseas disaster responses. The JHOC became USAID’s most frequently requested external courses and by 2020 had been delivered over 1,000 times to military units around the world. In the wake of Hurricane Stan, Gregg took the initiative to coordinate with US Army Corps of Engineers and provide Joint Task Force Bravo with the ability to conduct near-real time geo-referenced post-disaster assessments. For this and other services rendered, he was awarded the Joint Civilian Service Commendation medal. 

As an INSPIRE Fellow, Institute Scholar/Practitioner in Residence at the Institute for Global Leadership, he led and coalesced its national and international ALLIES program - Alliance for Leaders in Education and the Services. He currently leads ALLIES Pacific initiatives ,after receiving his doctorate in education at the University of Hawaii,

Ram Rothberg is an admiral in the Israel Defense Forces who was the head of the Israel Navy. He commanded the Flotilla 13 special forces unit from 2001 to 2004 and presided over some of its most notable operations, such as the raid on the Karin A arms smuggling ship in January 2002.

He later served as the Chief of Naval Intelligence during the Second Lebanon War and as the base commander of the Navy's Haifa base.

Afterwards, Rothberg served in the Israeli National Security Council.

On 4 August 2011, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved his appointment as the next head of the Israel Navy, after being nominated by IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. He was promoted in rank to Major General (Aluf). He replaced Vice-Admiral Eliezer Marom, who retired after serving in the IDF for 37 years. On 10 October 2011, in a ceremony held at the Haifa naval base, Rothberg entered his role as commander of the Israel Navy.

Rothberg personally led operation Full Disclosure of March 2014 from INS Hanit.

Mahadevan Shankar is an experienced qualified Chartered Accountant professional having over twenty-five years of global experiences including large developed economies of Australia, Canada, India, Russia and developing economies of South Pacific countries, Central Asia and Africa.

Mahadevan is a former Partner of the largest Big 4 Accounting firm. He has undertaken extensive Executive Search and Recruitment besides being the Leader of professional teams providing a range of professional services to small, medium and large corporations. Mahadevan’s clients included privately held companies and listed companies on ASX, FTSE, AIM, NASDAQ, TSX, BSE and NSE. The services included External and Internal Audits, Corporate Finance, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Enterprise Risk Services, Corporate Restructuring, Forensic Due Diligence, Mergers & Acquisitions, SME Business Solutions and Strategic Transaction Advisory Services in different countries.

Mahadevan has a proven track record of developing and nurturing cross functional partnerships delivering stellar results. He is based in Brisbane, Australia and is currently also a Strategic Advisor to many entrepreneurial startups and longstanding businesses in Australia, India and South Pacific region.

Mahadevan has depth of expertise across different industries including Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Mining and Renewable Energy.

Mahadevan is actively engaged in promoting bilateral partnerships between Australia, Papua New Guinea and India. Since September 2019, Mahadevan as Core Committee member of The Current And Strategic Affairs Forum (CASA) has been involved in hosting, coordinating and participating in many Strategic events and Leadership Webinars globally. Mahadevan was also Founding Executive Committee member of PNG India Business Forum from 2016 to 2018, Founding Vice Chairman of Association of Indian Chartered Accountants, Brisbane Chapter, Australia in 2013/14 and Founding Vice President of Society of Indian Chartered Accountants, Papua New Guinea in 2004/05.

Commodore Anil Jai Singh is the Vice President of the Indian Maritime Foundation and heads its Delhi branch. He was commissioned in the Navy in Jan 1981 and retired in March 2011.

In his career spanning three decades, he had the distinction of commanding four submarines and a Fleet ship. He also served in the Directorates of Naval Plans and Submarine Acquisition at Naval Headquarters and was involved in drafting the Navy’s 30 year submarine construction plan and the 15 year shipbuilding plan which are now coming to fruition. He has been a Directing Staff at the College of Naval Warfare, Senior Instructor(Navy) at the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and the Defence and Naval Adviser at the Indian High Commission in London. His last appointment was as Deputy Assistant Chief (Maritime) in the Perspective Planning and Force Development branch of the Integrated Defence Staff in the MoD.

A post-graduate in Defence and Strategic Studies, he is an alumnus of the NDA, Defence Services Staff College and the College of Naval Warfare. Keenly interested in matters maritime, he speaks and writes on the subject regularly in India and abroad and is also involved with the Indian industry associations on defense procurement and indigenization issues.

Navdeep Suri has had a 36-year long career in the Indian Foreign Service. He served in India’s diplomatic missions in Cairo, Damascus, Washington, Dar es Salaam and London. He was India’s Consul General in Johannesburg, High Commissioner to Australia and Ambassador to Egypt and the UAE. He also headed West Africa and Public Diplomacy departments in India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Navdeep has a master’s degree in economics. He has written on India’s public diplomacy and soft power, India’s Africa policy and the Indian IT outsourcing industry. He has also translated three classic Punjabi works into English — The Watchmaker (Penguin), A Life Incomplete (Harper Collins), and Khooni Vaisakhi (Harper Collins).

Navdeep’s initiative to introduce social media in the Ministry of External Affairs and its diplomatic missions in 2010 was commended. His contribution to building stronger ties between India and UAE was recognised by the President of UAE when he conferred on Navdeep the country’s second highest civilian award — the Order of Zayed II.

Adm. Scott Swift served in the U.S. Navy for more than 40 years, rising from his commission through the Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate program to become a Navy light attack and strike fighter pilot.  He commanded at all levels including F/A-18 weapons school, aircraft carrier-based squadrons, Carrier Air Wing, Carrier Strike Group, the U.S. Seventh Fleet forward deployed to Japan, finally completing his uniformed career as the 35th Commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet in 2018. During his years of service, he participated in combat Operations Praying Mantis, Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and received a master’s degree from the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

He is a graduate of San Diego State University and the U.S. Naval War College.

As founder of The Swift Group LLC, previous MIT Center for International Studies Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow, MIT Research Affiliate, Senior Fellow at the Center for Naval Analysis, Adjunct Professor at the Naval War College and board member of the US Naval Institute, Admiral Swift continues to explore opportunities to serve where his interests, abilities, experience and national need align.

Don Thieme, a seasoned military diplomat, scholar, foreign policy practitioner, and teacher, he brings more than 30 years of global experience to strategic problem solving in contested domains and operational environments. Before retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps, Don served in a wide variety of infantry and Reconnaissance units that deployed throughout Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Horn of Africa. When not deployed, Don was an Olmsted Scholar (Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków), a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member, and an MIT Seminar XXI Fellow. He was a personal advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for NATO expansion, theater campaign plans chief for U.S. Marine Forces in U.S. Central Command, and served seven years as a senior attaché in Warsaw and London, where he regularly analyzed foreign policy and recommended pragmatic actions to very senior U.S. and foreign leaders in pursuit of U.S. strategic objectives. 

At the U.S. Naval War College, he has served as a Professor of National Security Affairs and as Director & Professor of Writing in The Writing Center. He now works as a contractor in the War Gaming Division of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies. He has written over 600 posts for the Naval Wargaming Virtual Community of Practice, focusing on critical thinking that addresses emergent opportunities and threats at the convergence of technological, tactical, operational, and strategic levels of conflict and war.  

Don has taught in various fora from West Point classrooms to the desolate train tracks at Auschwitz, focused on the art – and action – of learning more than just strings of facts, but the inherent complex inter-relationships of human-ness in chaotic environments. He has published more than three dozen articles, helped write the Harvard University Carr Center Mass Atrocity Response Operations Handbook, and is a sought-after speaker on Holocaust and genocide issues. He is also a former Tufts University INSPIRE Fellow, ALLIES Fellow, and Outward Bound Lecturer at the Institute for Global Leadership. There he worked closely with Sherman Teichman’s team to conceive and execute the 2015-2016 program of study focused on enduring strategic interests and emerging challenges in Europe and the Trans-Atlantic partnership that included non-traditional education as well as a four-day workshop and symposium New Security for a New Europe. Simultaneously, he wrote his Dissertation on the technological temptations and power of biotechnē as a threat to both individual liberties and liberal democratic governance.  

Dr. R.K. Tyagi currently is the President of The Aeronautical Society of India. He was the Chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited from March 2012 to January 2015.Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited (PHHL) from May 2007 to February 2012.Joined ONGC as a Graduate Trainee 1976 and through various assignments rose to the position of General Manager in 2003 and continued serving ONGC up to May 2007.

A Doctor of Philosophy in Management Studies from Agra University and a distinguished alumni of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Roorkee. Dr.Tyagi’s organization skills helped build many strategic alliances. He also is credited with many turn-around business operations and is on the Board of Directors of Air India. He is a Mentor Director in ‘Defence Innovators & Industry Associations’, Member in the ‘Science & Technology Council’ and a Strategic Advisor in Aerospace ,Defence and Energy sectors.

Ravindra Chandrasiri Wijegunaratne is a retired Sri Lankan naval officer, and former Chief of Defence Staff of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. He has also served as the Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy, Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Navy, the Director General of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard and held, at various times, four of the seven Naval Commands of the SLN.Wijegunaratne has also served as Director Naval Operations, and is a recipient of the Weerodara Vibhushanaya.

Freddie Woodland is the Executive Director and Founder of the Commonwealth Security Group. He previously commissioned from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served as a British Army reconnaissance and intelligence officer. Freddie is a Masters Graduate in International Affairs from the University of Vienna.

George Zambellas was educated in Zimbabwe, and at Stowe and Southampton University, graduating in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering. He joined the Royal Navy in 1980 from the aerospace industry and qualified as a pilot in 1982. He flew three tours in different helicopter types, serving in carriers and frigates. After staff training in 1990, and a brief spell as a corporate planner, he commanded the mine hunter HMS Cattistock. In 1993, he was posted to Northwood as a Fleet aviation operations officer before promotion in 1995 and command of the frigate HMS Argyll.

During the 1997/98 Strategic Defence Review, he served in the MOD Centre Staff, helping to shape the maritime case within the defence's tri-Service balance of investment. In 1999, as a Captain, he commanded HMS Chatham, which included Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone. In 2001 George Zambellas attended the Higher Command and Staff Course, and then became Deputy Flag Officer Sea Training, responsible for training Royal Navy and foreign warships and auxiliaries.

Between 2002 and 2004, as a Commodore, he was Principal Staff Officer to two Chiefs of the Defence Staff. In 2005 he commanded the Royal Navy’s Amphibious Task Group, overseeing the introduction of two new amphibious classes of ships, and the Bowman radio and data system into amphibious operational use. He and his staff supported Operation Highbrow, the evacuation of civilians from Lebanon, in July 2006.

In 2006, as a Rear Admiral, he was appointed as Chief of Staff (Transformation), leading the change programme to design and deliver the Fleet’s new approach to the generation of maritime capability and support to operations. In 2007, he was Commander United Kingdom Maritime Force and, in October 2008, Chief of Staff (Operations) at the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood. On promotion to Vice Admiral In January 2011, he was appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet, Chief of Staff to the Navy Command Headquarters, and the Chief Naval Warfare Officer.

On promotion to Admiral in January 2012, George Zambellas became Commander, Allied Maritime Command Northwood, in which role he also discharged Full Command responsibilities as the Royal Navy’s Fleet Commander until November 2012. He was appointed KCB in 2012.