Keynote Speakers

Fiona Stewart is the Global Lead for Aging and Pensions at the World Bank, where she advises governments worldwide on strategies and reform options for national pension programs. She joined the Bank in 2012, previously serving as the Global Lead for Insurance & Pensions within the Finance and Markets teams. Fiona also played a key role in coordinating the Bank’s work on sustainable finance, including representing the institution at the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, co-chairing the Finance Taskforce under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and serving as Secretary to the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action. From 2004, Fiona worked at the OECD’s Financial Affairs Division, where she led the Secretariat of the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS). Prior to that, she held roles in the pension fund industry, including as Head of American Express Asset Management in Japan. She has served on the advisory board of one of the OECD’s pension funds and currently represents World Bank staff on the organization's Pension Fund Committee. Fiona holds degrees from Oxford and Johns Hopkins Universities and a CFA qualification.

Robert Palacios is Lead Economist for Social Protection at the World Bank. Between 1992-1994, he was a member of the research department team that produced the World Bank’s influential volume on international pension systems, “Averting the Old Age Crisis: Policies to Protect the Old and Promote Growth”. Since 1995, he has worked in more than thirty countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. He has more than 40 publications including articles and books on old age poverty, health insurance, managing public pension funds, social pensions, civil service pensions among others. During the last decade, he has focused on pension reforms and implementation issues including digital identification and payments.

Oleksiy Sluchynsky (Alexi) is a Senior Economist at the World Bank, currently based in Bangkok, Thailand, with over 20 years of experience in the global policy and implementation of social insurance programs. He has worked in nearly 30 countries across various regional units, serving in both leadership and advisory roles. Alexi brings deep technical expertise and practical operational experience in the design, implementation, and reform of social protection systems. His work focuses on strengthening delivery systems and leveraging technological innovation to modernize social insurance and improve program effectiveness. He also advises on strategies to expand coverage to diverse and hard-to-reach populations, including efforts to integrate social insurance with health and tax systems, and to identify and address barriers faced by traditionally undercovered sectors.

Owen Smith is a Lead Economist with the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice, currently based in Accra, Ghana.  He was previously based in Colombo, Sri Lanka and New Delhi, India.  Since joining the World Bank in 2005, he has worked extensively on health financing and health policy issues in Europe & Central Asia, South Asia and West & Central Africa regions. He is a co-author of Getting Better: Improving Health System Outcomes in Europe and Central Asia and Going Universal: How 24 Countries are Implementing Universal Health Coverage.  Recently he co-led the development of Future Fit: West & Central Africa Health, Nutrition & Population Strategy.  Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as a health economist with Abt Associates and as a macroeconomist with the Department of Finance Canada. 

Narumol Boonmee is the Director of the Office of Social Security Development for Informal Sector Workers. She has previously served as Director of Social Security for Nakhon Pathom, Chachoengsao, and Chai Nat Provinces, as well as Director of the Training Division of the SSO.

Frédéric Lapeyre is Director of the Priority Action Program “Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy” at the International Labour Organization (ILO). From 2020 to 2024, he served as ILO Country Office Director for Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo. Prior to that, he was the Head of the ILO Informal Economy Unit and coordinating the ILO’s work on the adoption of Recommendation No. 204 on “Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy.” Before joining the ILO, he was Professor at UCL, Chair of the Belgian Post-Graduate School of Development Studies, and a Fulbright Post-doctoral Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), a Master’s in Comparative Development Studies from EHESS–Paris, and a European Master’s in Employment, Sciences and Technology from the University of Oslo/UCL. His research and policy work focus on development, the informal economy, employment creation, the promotion of decent work, and inclusive, job-rich growth. He has published extensively in academic journals and books.

Rodrigo Assumpção is the current President of Dataprev, the Social Security Information and Technology Company of Brazil, a position he resumed in April 2023, having previously served in the same role from 2008 to 2017. With over 30 years of experience in digital transformation and public sector innovation, he has also worked as a consultant for international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Social Security Association (ISSA). His public service career includes roles in Brazil’s Ministry of Planning and the municipality of Santo André (São Paulo). He also worked as a specialist in Management Information Systems for Social Protection at the International Labour Organization (ILO). As President of Dataprev, Rodrigo is focused on promoting social inclusion through digitalization, building a national data infrastructure, and enhancing interoperability and efficiency in federal public services to better serve Brazilian citizens.

Tomoaki Tanaka is Deputy Director/Economist at the Macroeconomic Analysis Division, Credit Risk Analysis and Environmental Review Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). He has worked on public finance and social protection, including an assignment at the JICA Mongolia Office from 2015 to 2018. His research focuses on social protection and taxation in developing countries, and his work has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics. He is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo. He received his B.A. in Economics from Keio University and his M.A. in Economics from the University of Tokyo. He completed the MRes in Economics and is currently a PhD candidate in Economics at Queen Mary University of London.

Fábio Veras Soares is a senior researcher at Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), Brazil’s government think‑tank, and serves as Research Coordinator at the IPC‑IG (International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth), a joint initiative of UNDP and IPEA. In his role, he is focal point for IPEA in IPC‑IG, leading evaluation and coordination efforts in social protection and inclusive growth. He has extensive experience in impact evaluation of cash transfer and related social programmes in Brazil and other countries (including Paraguay, Mozambique, and Yemen). His publications span peer‑reviewed journals and working paper series, and he contributes regularly to policy‑relevant research on conditional cash transfers, gender vulnerabilities in social programmes, labour economics and non‑randomised evaluations of social protection interventions. In recent years, he has also collaborated with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on research linking social protection, labour markets and policy implementation, shaping comparative analyses of programme effectiveness and policy‑design. He holds a PhD in Economics from University College London (2004).

Milan Vodopivec is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, Slovenia. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously, he was a Lead Economist at the World Bank, where he worked in the Research Department and the Human Development Network. He has also served as State Undersecretary in the Slovenian Ministry of Labor and as a teacher and Dean of the first private college in Slovenia. His research interests focus on the labor market and cash benefit systems. He has published widely in these areas, including in the Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Labor Economics, European Economic Review, Labour Economics, and Economics of Transition. He is also the author of "Income Support for the Unemployed: Issues and Options" and co-editor of "Reforming Severance Pay: An International Perspective," published by the World Bank in 2004 and 2012, respectively.

Brendan Chia is Head of Regional Public Affairs and Policy at Grab. He focuses on emerging policy topics at the intersection of technology and public policy - including AI governance, digital platforms, and the gig economy - to advance Grab's economic and social impact. With a career spanning the private, public, and multilateral sectors, he brings diverse experience and perspectives from roles at the Boston Consulting Group, World Bank, and Singapore Economic Development Board.