Keynote Speakers

Ivan Mikloš

Distinguished Associate Fellow for Economic Growth & Sustainability Programme at GLOBSEC, President of MESA10, and Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Slovak Republic

Ivan Mikloš is former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Slovak Republic (2002-2006, 2010-2012), Deputy Prime Minister for Economy (1998-2002), and Minister of Privatization (1991-1992). He has co-founded and led the economic think tank MESA10 (1992-1998). Between 2006-2010 and 2012-2016, he was a Member of Parliament. In 2014, he was reappointed as the President of MESA10. During 2015-2016 he served as a Chief Advisor to the Minister of Finance of Ukraine and as an Advisor to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. Since April 2016 until August 2019, he served as a Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. After the change of the government, from November 2019 until March 2020, he was in position of an Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. In years 2016-2020 he chaired the Strategic Advisory Group for Support of Ukrainian Reforms (SAGSUR). He is also Co-Founder of the Ukrainian economic think tank Centre for Economic Strategy. He served as an Advisor to the Prime Minister of Moldova (2021-2022). In March 2022, he became an Advisor to the President of the Slovak Republic in the field of economic policy.

Ivan Mikloš was one of the leading figures of economic transformation in the Slovak Republic. He significantly contributed to the entry of the Slovak Republic into the OECD and instigated an extensive and effective tax reform. He led the government agenda on economic restructuring and fiscal consolidation. The second Dzurinda´s government (2002-2006) gained a very reformist reputation thanks to severe austerity measures and a comprehensive program of structural reforms (tax, social sector, pension, healthcare, public finance, labour market) backed by Ivan Mikloš. Thanks to these reforms, Slovakia was able to join the Eurozone in 2009. In 2004, he was awarded “Best Minister of Finance of the Year” by Euromoney, and “Top Business Reformer” by the World Bank´s Doing Business report.

Ivan Mikloš is the author of “Book of Reforms” (2005), “Rewriting the Rule” (2001) and dozens of studies and articles in the expert and popular press. He is also the author of the chapter about Slovak reforms in the book “The Great Rebirth: Lessons from the Victory of Capitalism over Communism” (2014). In 2019, under his leadership SAGSUR published the book about Ukrainian reform process “Reforms in Ukraine after Revolution of Dignity: What was done, why not more and what to do next” (2019), to which he contributed the chapter “Political Economy of Reforms: Political system, governance and corruption”.

Zdeněk Zajíček

President, Chamber of Commerce, Czech Republic

Born 1967 in Prague. Politician and lawyer. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Prague. He worked as the deputy minister in Ministry of Finace, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior. Currently he holds a position of an advisor to Czech Prime Minister and Minister of Transport for digitization and digital transformation. He is also active as ICT Union President and Vice-Chairman of the Government Council for Information Society. Since June 1, 2023 he has been President of Chamber of Commerce.

At the political level he is a member of Civil Democratic Party (ODS), 2022 – May 2023 vice chairman of ODS, since 2018 he has been representing the party in the Prague Municipality Council.

He is considered an imaginative innovator and one of the key figures of digitization

in the Czech Republic. He participated in authorship, legislation and implemantation

in the projects such as CzechPOINT, Data Boxes, Basic Registeres, Bank Identity, Digitalization of Construction Procedures and Digital Technical Maps.

He has been active in sports as an active basketball player, international basketball referee and than Chairman of the Czech Basketball Federation.

Zdeněk Zajíček is married and has three sons.

Young Tae Kim

Secretary General of the International Transport Forum (OECD)

Young Tae Kim is the Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF). He was re-elected for a second term by the transport ministers of ITF member countries at their Annual Summit on 19 May 2022. He took office in his first term as Secretary-General in August 2017. Prior to his election as ITF Secretary-General, Dr Kim distinguished himself in the civil service of his native Korea, most recently serving as Director General in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). As Deputy Director-General from 2015, he was responsible for co-ordinating various transport policies including on autonomous vehicle, greenhouse gas reduction, urban transport, Intelligent Transport Systems and road safety, among others.

After joining the MOLIT in 1994 as Deputy Director for Urban Transport, Dr Kim also held several Deputy Director and Director positions with responsibility for housing welfare, integrated city development and overseas infrastructure construction. He was seconded to the Prime Minister’s Commission on Administrative Reform in 1996 and the Presidential Committee on Social Inclusion in 2005-2007. From 2010 to 2014, Dr Kim worked in Washington, D.C., as Counsellor for Construction, Transport and Maritime Affairs at the Korean Embassy.

Dr Kim earned his Master’s degrees in Public Policy from Seoul National University, Korea, and in Urban Studies from Paris University de Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France.

He also received his Doctorate degree in Political Sociology and Public Policy from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po), Paris, France.

Dr Kim speaks fluent English, French and some Spanish, in addition to his native Korean.

Emanuela Stocchi

Chair of PIARC’s Promotion of Gender Inclusion and Diversity team

Emanuela Stocchi is an expert in EU legislation and policies and she is the Director of International Affairs for AISCAT (Associazione Italiana Società Concessionarie Autostrade e Trafori), the Italian Association of Toll Highways Concessionaires Companies. In this role she ensures the Association’s contacts with the EU Institutions and other European and International organizations active in the transportation field. She fluently speaks Italian, French, English and Spanish.

Emanuela has an outstanding International background: she holds a degree in Political Science with a specialization in EU law and policies and she has worked in Brussels for eight years with ASECAP, the European Association of Toll Highways Concessionaires Companies, gaining a solid and comprehensive knowledge of all the EU Institutional and public affairs and expanding at the same time her EU and International network in the transportation area.

Emanuela is still very active within ASECAP, being Deputy Member of the ASECAP Executive Committee and Chair of the ASECAP Permanent Committee of Road Safety, Environment and Sustainability; she is also serving as member of the PIARC (World Road Association) Executive Committee, as French-speaking Secretary of the PIARC Terminology committee and as Chair of the PIARC Gender Diversity and Inclusion Team, directly reporting to the Executive Committee.

Emanuela served as well IBTTA (International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association – the worldwide alliance of toll operators and of the businesses that serve tolling) and its members through work on several committees before being appointed to the Board of Directors in 2011. Emanuela served a two-year term as International Vice President, before a three-year term as Second and then First Vice President followed President in 2017 and finally, Immediate Past President in 2018. She is currently serving in the Advisory Council of the IBTTA Past Presidents, as well as in the IBTTA WIT (Women in Tolling) Council.

Guangzhe Chen

Vice President for Infrastructure, World Bank

Guangzhe Chen, a Chinese national, is the Vice President for Infrastructure at the World Bank as of February 1, 2023. In this position he leads the Bank’s global efforts to build sustainable infrastructure in developing and emerging economies and supports the World Bank Group’s strategic priorities such as the climate change action plan and the private capital mobilization and enabling efforts. He oversees the Bank’s work across energy and transport sectors, digital development, and efforts to provide access to renewable energy, low-carbon transportation, digital connectivity, and quality infrastructure services to communities through public-private partnerships. Infrastructure represents around $72 billion of the Bank’s portfolio.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Chen served as the Regional Director for Infrastructure in the South Asia Region at the World Bank. He provided leadership and oversaw the formulation and implementation of the knowledge and financing programs across energy, transport and digital

development in the region covering Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The regional department has a portfolio of over 60 projects amounting to approximately $17 billion.

He was the World Bank’s Global Director for the Transport Global Practice from 2018 to 2020 and prior to that was Senior Director for the World Bank’s Water Global Practice. He has also served as World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa, and subsequently for Southern Africa, covering Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, based in Pretoria. His earlier career positions at the World Bank include roles as team lead and manager in the transport and urban, water and disaster risk management units.

An economist by training, Mr. Chen has over 25 years of international experience in the field of sustainable development, infrastructure finance and management with the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank.

Mr. Chen holds a graduate degree in Economics from Harvard University, USA, and B.A. in

Economics from Zhongshan (Sun Yat-Sen) University, Guangzhou, China.

Antonio Silveira

Vice President, Latin-America Development Bank (CAF)

Antonio H. Pinheiro Silveira is Manager of Physical Infraestructure & Digital Transformation of CAF. He has a PhD in Economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He was the Deputy Chief of Economic Advice of the Ministry of Planning, Secretary of Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance and Minister of the Secretariat of Ports of the Government of Brazil. He participated in Directories of public and private companies, which include Caixa Económica Federal, Vale S.A. (Fiscal Council) and Banco do Nordeste. He worked as Executive Director for Brazil at the World Bank and the IDB.

Nancy Daubenberger

Minnesota Department of Transportation (USA)

Nancy Daubenberger has worked for the Minnesota Department of Transportation for over 22 years, in engineering and management positions and was appointed by Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan as the agency’s Commissioner in May 2022 after serving for three years as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Engineer. Prior to her current role, she served as the Assistant Commissioner for Engineering Services, the State Bridge Engineer, and also previously served in planning, project management and design roles for the MnDOT Bridge Office and Metro District. Before coming to MnDOT, she worked in consulting for about six years, in both bridge and road design.

Christophe Saintillan

Deputy Managing Director of VINCI Autoroutes (France)

Christophe Saintillan currently is Deputy Managing Director of VINCI Autoroutes, France’s leading freeway concession company, in charge of 4,400 km of motorway. Previously, he was with the French Ministry of Transport for twenty years, in charge of various road design, road policy and infrastructure management roles. He was a Member of the PIARC Executive Committee from 2010 to 2016 and First Delegate for France. He joined the Great Paris (Île-de-France) regional council for 4.5 years, where he was in charge of housing and transport.

Christophe Saintillan will present how VINCI Autoroutes address decarbonization and adaptation. VINCI Autoroutes has been working with academics on the decarbonization of the road: starting from the observation that in France, the transport sector has become the most emitting sector and the only one whose emissions are not being reduced, Vinci Autoroutes has studied the concrete actions to be taken to bring mobility on freeways in line with the trajectory imposed by the Paris Agreement and French national policies. These include welcoming electromobility for light vehicles (massive installation of charging stations) and heavy goods vehicles (charging stations, ERS), encouraging the most virtuous modes of transport (car-sharing, public transport thanks to reserved lanes, parking facilities and multimodal platforms) and, more generally, making freeways part of a logic of urban and environmental integration and adaptation to climate change, given their impact on the weather (reducing the consequences of flooding, protection against the risk of fire). This calls for a massive and urgent investment plan, broken down by action and costed.