CEREMONIAL OPENING
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Ronald Jansen
Assistant Director, UN Statistics Division
Ronald Jansen is Assistant Director of the United Nations Statistics Division in New York. He is responsible for the Division’s work on data innovation and on capacity development strategies. This includes leading the intergovernmental processes for innovation of official statistics and implementing the capacity development pillar of the Cape Town Global Action Plan in support of the monitoring of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
He is specifically supporting the work of the UN Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics and the related UN Global Platform, which is a collaborative environment for the global statistical community to jointly execute data innovation projects and share data, services, methods and expertise.
His educational background is in Statistics and Psychology; obtained a PhD in mathematical modelling of human information processing in May 1990; then joined the UN Statistics Division in June 1990 in New York.
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Shin Wook Kang
Commissioner, KOSTAT, Republic of Korea
As the 17th Commissioner of Statistics Korea, Mr. Kang Shin-wook is fully committed to improving survey methodology and developing new statistical indicators which reflect new policy demands. Commissioner Kang is leading Statistics Korea with a vision to make the organization a national data hub in the face of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Prior to being appointed as the Commissioner of Statistics Korea, Mr. Kang served as the Director of Department of Income Security Policy and Head of the Center for Research on Basic Social Protection at Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs(KIHASA). He published multiple reports and papers on topics such as ‘Causes of Rising Income Inequality and Policy Directions for Distribution Structure Improvement(2014)’, and ‘Evaluating the Efficacy of Income Security System of Korea (2017).’ Commissioner Kang is a co-author of ‘A Study of Development and Application of Social Cohesion Index(2012).’ In addition, he has global experiences as a Senior Research Fellow at International Labour Organization(ILO) and Yale University. As a recognized expert on income distribution, policies on poverty and social cohesion, Kang made contributions to national policy making process while serving as the member of Presidential Committee on Policy Planning(2002-2004) and Director of Economy and Industry at Presidential Committee on Aging and Future Society(2004-2005)
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Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
Under-secretary General And Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic And Social Commission For Asia And The Pacific
Prior to joining ESCAP, Ms. Alisjahbana was Professor of Economics at Universitas Padjadjaran in Bandung, Indonesia, a position she assumed in 2005. She joined Universitas Padjadjaran as a lecturer in 1988. Since 2016, she has served as Director for the Center for Sustainable Development Goals Studies at Universitas Padjadjaran and Vice Chair of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.
She also serves on the Governing Board of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), and member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (Akademi Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia - AIPI), the Forum of Statistics Community (Forum Masyarakat Statistik or Advisory Council of the Indonesian Statistics), the International Advisory Board of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies and Council Member of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI).
From 2009 to 2014, she was Minister of National Development Planning and the Head of the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Indonesia. She served as Co-chair of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation from 2012 to 2014. From 2009 to 2014, she was Alternate Governor of the World Bank and Alternate Governor of the Asian Development Bank representing the government of Indonesia. In 2016, she was a member of the High Level Independent Team of Advisors to support the ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer term positioning of the United Nations Development System in the context of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
Ms. Alisjahbana has been involved in various research projects and consultancies to the United Nations University/Institute for Advanced Study in Tokyo, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the European Commission, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Ms. Alisjahbana earned her Bachelor degree in Economics and Development Studies from Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia, a Masters degree in Economics from Northwestern University, USA and a Ph.D in Economics from University of Washington, USA. She was awarded the Mahaputra Adipradana Order (Bintang Mahaputra Adipradana) from the Republic of Indonesia, honorary brevet from the Indonesian Navy and honorary flight wing from the Indonesian Air Force.
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Kiyoung Choi
Minister of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea
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Risenga Maluleke
Statistician-General, Statistics South Africa, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Risenga Maluleke was appointed South Africa’s 2nd Statistician-General in November, 2017. Prior to November, 2017, Mr Maluleke was the Deputy Director-General for Statistical Collections and Outreach. He has been with Statistics South Africa for the past 20 years. He was responsible for the provincial offices’ data collection for censuses and sample surveys; international statistical development and communications. Mr Maluleke has also been instrumental in International Statistical Development. Mr Maluleke has represented South Africa on countless occasions and has extensive experience in international and diplomatic matters. He has been instrumental in managing Stats SA’s participation in international meetings such as the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC). He holds a BSc in mathematical statistics from the University of Limpopo and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Science from the University of Stellenbosch. He has also completed Senior Executive Programmes from the University of the Witwatersrand and Harvard Business Schools.
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Stefan Schweinfest
Director, UN Statistics Division
Stefan Schweinfest was appointed Director of the Statistics Division (UNSD/DESA) in July 2014. Under his leadership, the Division compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develops standards and norms for statistical activities including the integration of geospatial, statistical and other information, and supports countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical and geospatial systems.
Stefan Schweinfest started his career joining the Statistics Division in 1989 in the area of national accounting. He subsequently worked in various other areas, such as statistical capacity building programmes, and indicator frameworks. For many years, he was also responsible for external relationships of the Division, both with member countries as well as with international partner organizations. He has been the substantive secretary of two intergovernmental bodies, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) since 2002, and the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM) since 2011.
As the Director of the Statistics Division, Stefan Schweinfest supported the work of Statistical Commission and its Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) to develop the global indicator framework to monitor progress towards the SDGs, which was adopted by UNSC at its 48th session in March 2017 and subsequently by ECOSOC and the General Assembly. Under his leadership, the Division works on implementing this framework and ensuring countries receive capacity building support to monitor progress towards the SDGs.
He played a key role in the negotiations leading to the 2011 ECOSOC resolution to establish UN-GGIM and has actively involved himself with global geospatial information management since, including the negotiations leading to a second ECOSOC resolution in 2016 that strengthens and broadens the mandate of this Committee of Experts.
SESSION 1 : THE ROLE OF STATISTICAL COMMUNITY IN COVID-19 RESPONSE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SDG MONITORING - HIGH LEVEL PANEL DISCUSSION
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Gemma Van Halderen
Director of Statistics Division, UNESCAP
Gemma Van Halderen is Director of the Statistics Division in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Prior to joining ESCAP in 2018, Gemma was a member of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Executive Team leading, amongst other things, ABS’ contribution to the Australian Government’s Data Integration Partnership for Australia. In 2017, Gemma was seconded to the Commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to lead preparation of the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Data Availability and Use.
Gemma has extensive global experience. She was inaugural co-chair of a UN Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute, a member of the International Association of Official Statistics (IAOS) Executive Committee, the regional editor of the Statistical Journal of the IAOS and an advocate for young statisticians. Gemma holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the Australian National University majoring in Statistics. Her recent interview with the ISI Stats and Stories can be found at https://statsandstories.net/methods/official-statistics-in-asia-and-the-pacific.
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Elliot Harris
Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Economist, UNDESA
Mr. Harris is the Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the Chief Economist of the United Nations. He served previously as Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Environment Programmer in New York, from 2013 to 2018. Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Harris spent 25 years as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund, working in the African and Fiscal Affairs Departments, ending his career there as Assistant Director at the Strategy Policy and Review Department.
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Ayush Ariunzaya
Minister of Social Protection and Labour, Mongolia
Her Excellency, Ms. Ayush Ariunzaya is Minister for Labor and Social Protection in the Mongolian Parliament, following the general elections held on June 24 2020. Prior to becoming a Minister, Ms. Ariunzaya was the Chairperson of the National Statistics Office of Mongolia from 2016 to 2020. In 2019, she became the Co-Chair of United Nations Statistical Commission High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. She was also the Chair of the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) and was the President of ANCSDAAP in2018-2020. She has a Master’sin Political science, Sociology and History from the University of Hannover, Germany, and a Master’sin Public Administration Management at the National Academy of Governance, Mongolia.
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Yvan Clermont
Director General for the Analytical Studies Branch, Statistics Canada
Mr. Yvan Clermont is Director General of the Analytical Studies Branch at Statistics Canada.
In this position, he is responsible for leading several teams of researchers that provides authoritative expertise and which produce high quality, relevant and timely information on economic, health and social issues important to Canadians, governments, non-profit organizations and institutions.
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Juan Daniel Oviedo Arango
Chief Director Statistician of Colombia, DANE (National Statistics Office from Colombia), Bogota - Colombia
Juan Daniel Oviedo was appointed Chief Director Statistician of Colombia in August 2018. He has international professional experience in economic consulting for energy markets, and national experience in government and teaching. Previously, he was the Director of Institutional Planning and Research (2016-2018) and Director of the PhD School of Economics (2013-2016) at the Universidad del Rosario of Bogotá. In addition, he was the Founding Partner and Chief Director of LEICO Consultores (2011-2018), a leading consulting firm which performed as an expert opinion both for the private and public sector in regulated industries in Colombia and Latin America. He holds a permanent academic position at Universidad del Rosario of Bogotá (Colombia) since 2005. Juan has a PhD in economics from the University of Toulouse 1 (France) and BA in economics from the Universidad del Rosario of Bogotá (Colombia).
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Kecuk Suhariyanto
Director General, BPS Statistics Indonesia
Kecuk Suhariyanto has been worked at BPS-Statistics Indonesia since 1983. He has been appointed as the Director General of BPS Statistics Indonesia by the President of Republic of Indonesia since 2016. Before becoming Director General, Kecuk has career as Deputy Director General for National Accounts, Director of Statistical Analysis and Development, Head of Cross-Sectoral Analysis Sub Directorate and Head of Food Crops Statistics Sub Directorate in BPS Statistics Indonesia. He also has experiences as a member of Quality Assurance Team of National Bureaucratic Reform under Vice President of Republic Indonesia.
Kecuk has Ph.D in Agricultural Statistics from University of Reading United Kingdom, Master Degree in Applied Statistics from University of Guelph Canada, and Diploma in Statistics from Academy of Statistics Indonesia.
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Asaph Y. Chun
Director General of Statistics Research Institute, Republic of Korea
Dr. Asaph Young Chun is the Director-General of Statistics Research Institute, the state-run think tank of official statistics and data innovation in Korea and beyond. Prior to his service in the Korean government, Dr. Chun had served four Presidents of the United States since 1991 with his devotion to evidence-based policymaking in economy, labor, education and public health, as well as methodological innovation in official statistics with data science and survey methodology. A journalist-turned-sociologist, Dr. Chun joined interdisciplinary research career beginning in 1989 at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in concert with the UM School of Medicine. He served most recently as the Research Chief for Decennial Directorate at the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2013, he delivered an invited talk on science diplomacy in the Royal Society of the United Kingdom. He published over 110 papers that appear in Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Business Survey Methods by Wiley, among others. Dr. Chun is the editor of a forthcoming Wiley book, “Administrative Records for Survey Methodology,” a source of massive data innovation and data-based policycrafting. An enthusiastic fan of art by Albrecht Durer and Marc Chagall, Dr. Chun turns to art and music as inspiration of innovation by his research mentees.
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Craig Jones
Deputy Government Statistician
Statistics New Zealand
Craig started as Deputy Government Statistician with responsibility for Data System Leadership in May 2020. Prior to this role he was Deputy Secretary, Evidence, Data and Knowledge in the Ministry of Education since May 2016. Prior to joining the Ministry he spent 16 years in the New South Wales public service, holding leadership roles in Justice, Treasury and Education.
Originally from Waihopai | Invercargill, he graduated from Otago University in 2000 and was later awarded a PhD in forensic psychology from the University of New South Wales. Craig proudly describes himself as a data nerd and all of his roles in government have involved a strong focus on how government can collect, manage and use data to make better decisions.
SESSION 2 : USING BIG DATA FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE
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Taejun (David) LEE
Professor, KDI School of Public Policy and Management
As an associate professor at KDI School of Public Policy and Management, Dr. Lee oversees The Open Governance & Innovation Lab at KDI as a managing director and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Economic Information and Education Center of KDI. As of 2015, Dr. Lee has also been an Affiliated Researcher of Open Government Unit at the Directorate for Public Governance of OECD, conducting innovative government policy research on issues relating to Trust in Government, Public Communication, Open Government Data, and Digital Government. Since 2019, Dr. Lee has been carrying out a policy advisory role for combating, recovering and reforming of the Covid-19 in association with OECD and Open Government Partnership (OGP). Within South Korea, Dr. Lee as a policy adviser also consult various government ministries and public organizations, such as Executive Office of the President, The Office for Governmental Policy Coordination, Ministry of Economy & Finance, Ministry of Public Administration & Security, Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism, Ministry of Science & ICT, Ministry of Food & drug Safety, Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. Dr. Lee focuses on broader research topics for which there are several potential for data economy, innovation labs, smart cities, public communication, and financial consumer protection. He published about 50 journal articles on recognized academic journals indexed SSCI, SCOPUS, and KCI.
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Moon Park
Head of Digital Innovation Centre, KPMG
Mr. Moon Park leads smart city, smart manufacturing, smart agriculture, and other smart X projects by architecturing new transaction structure, leveraging behavioral science, persuading both public and private sectorsto design and experiment digital ecosystem.
According to Moon's recent articles, digital new technologies are glues combining and linking separate silos to create and mesh new value chains, digital thread. Therefore design thinking to architecture new socioeconomictransaction structure resulting in new economy, society, and welfare is of importance.
Moon is of the opinion that policy makings and implementations, and interested parties at either public or private sector should play the role of re-design and re-balance which sustainably incentivize participants toact in virtuous circle of good behaviors. When designed creatively and multidimensionally, economy, society, welfare will make citizens and people happier, and start-ups, SMEs and conglomerates will co-exist in digitally fair economy.
Moon wrote digital transformation related thought leadership leveraging his experience of KPMG advisory (operations, strategy, risk management, deal .)
Regarding Moon’s academic paths, he graduated BA of economics in Seoul National Univ. (SNU) and did MBA in the graduate school of the same univ. Recently he attended and resonated his networking through Future InnovationProgram of Engineering School of SNU, Convergence AMP of KAIST, and The 4th Industrial Revolution AMP of Korea Green Foundation.
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Tracey Li
Senior Data Scientist, Flowminder
Tracey Li is a Data Scientist and Project Manager at Flowminder, where she specialises in working with mobile phone data to support humanitarian and development programmes. She has experience of working with a diverse array of datasets, using a range of technologies and statistical and machine-learning techniques, within the research, private, and social-impact sectors.
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Omar Seidu
Head of Demographic Statistics of the Ghana Statistical Service
Omar Seidu is a social statistician with about 20 years’ experience in the statistics production process. He has extensive expertise in survey sampling, design of survey instruments, implementation of sample surveys and he is a social and demographic statistics instructor. Omar is a Fellow of the Sampling Programme for Survey Statisticians and member of the United Nations Inter Agency and Expert Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (IAEG-SDGs). Omar serves on several other international committees/platforms on data for development.
Omar coordinates data for monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana and currently championing data innovation, multi-stakeholder approach to data production and utilization and the building of robust administrative data system. He is credited with brokering strategic partnerships and mobilizing resources for the statistical system in Ghana. Omar is not only passionate about strengthening the data ecosystem, but also the uptake of evidence in decision making.
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Frankie Kay
Deputy National Statistician, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom
Frankie Kay took up post as Interim Deputy National Statistician and Director General for Data Capability in July 2019.
Frankie is responsible for the capability of the Office for National Statistics, ensuring that everybody has the technology and skills to enable them to do their job effectively. She is leading the digital and workforce transformation to allow ONS to collect, securely store and analyse data from new sources. Frankie champions openness and data sharing for the public good in ONS and beyond.
Frankie joined the ONS in January 2010 as Head of IT Project Delivery. Since then, she has held several senior roles in ONS, including leading the development strategy for the UK National Accounts.
Most recently, Frankie has led the transformation of ONS economic and population and public policy statistics, taking a leading role on preparations for Census 2021.
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Mart Mägi
Director General, Statistics Estonia
Mr. Mart Mägi has got more than 25 years of managerial experience. He has worked as the business manager of Sampo Group's CEE unit, the chairman of the board of PriceWaterhouseCoopers Advisors, the head of Swedbank Estonia's asset-based financing and insurance business unit (Hansa Leasing Estonia, Hansa Assets Insurance AS) and CEO of Amserv Group and Pharma Holding. As of 2017, he works in Statistics Estonia as Director General. Mart is a member of the supervisory boards of several companies and foundations.
Mart graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tartu with a degree in Finance and Credit in 1993. In 2004 he defended his MBA degree at the University of Tartu and during the same period at the Warsaw University of Banking and Insurance.
SESSION 3 : USING BIG DATA FOR SDGS - MOBILE DATA FOR TOURISM, MIGRATION, POPULATION AND TRANSPORT
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Esperanza Magpantay
ITU
Ms Esperanza Magpantay is the Senior Statistician of the ICT Data and Analytics division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she has been working since December 2000. She is responsible for the collection, harmonization and dissemination of ICT statistics. Ms Magpantay coordinates the work of the ITU Expert Groups on ICT indicators, the ITU’s representative at the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development and its Steering Committee, the UN Inter-Agency Group on SDG indicators, and currently leads the UN Global Working Group Task Team on mobile phone big data. She has represented ITU in international and regional events giving presentations and trainings on ICT indicators.
Before joining ITU, she worked for 7 years at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva as a statistical officer. She has a degree in Statistics from the University of the Philippines and is a candidate in Master in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE University in Madrid, Spain.
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Dong-ok Lee
Head of IoT/Data department, SK Telecom
Dong-ok Lee is the person in charge of creating demographic data such as floating population data using mobile data at SKTelecom, a mobile telecommunications operator with the largest market share in S.Korea.
He is collaborating with various public institutions such as Statistics Korea, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In addition, he is doing business in the field of commercial analysis of private distribution companies, financial institutions, and manufacturers, and regional target marketing.
He has a MA in Urban Sociology and specializes in geospatial data analysis. He is working on finding a more accurate and quick mobile-based statistical method and applying it to the field.
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Titi Kanti Lestari
Director of Finance, IT and Tourism Statistics, BPS Indonesia
Titi Kanti Lestari has been works for BPS-Staistics Indonesia since 1983. Currently she is Director of Finance, Information Technonology and Tourism Statistics. She is responsible to manage data collection, processing and analysis of finance, information technology and tourism statistics at BPS Statistics Indonesia. She is previously Director of Distributive Statistics which responsible for data collection, processing and analysis of international merchandise trade, transportation and domestic trade statistics.
Titi has Ph.D from Monash University Australia in Applied Econometrics, and has master degree in Economic Development from Wollongong University Australia. She also has bachelor degree in financial management from University of Indonesia and diploma in statistics from Academy of Statistics Indonesia.
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Erwin Knippenberg
World Bank
Dr. Erwin Knippenberg is an economist at the World Bank, part of the 2019 Young Professionals program. Previously he was Lead Economist at Cooper/Smith, a DC based startup using data to drive innovations in public health and food security. He wrote his dissertation on resilience and food security in the context of climate change, pioneering the use of high-frequency data and machine learning to monitor food insecurity in Malawi. Before his PhD Erwin was an Overseas Development Institute Fellow at the Liberian Ministry of Finance. He has a in PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University ('18), MSC in Economics for Development from Oxford (’12) and a joint BS/MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (’11).
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May Offermans
Senior Innovation Strategist, Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek), Maastricht Netherlands
May Offermans is a creative innovator at Statistics Netherlands (SN) who specialized in Mobile Phone Data and Public Transport Data for Official Statistics. He also acts as a project manager in complex strategic innovation projects at SN. He studied both Health Sciences and Epidemiology at Maastricht University and Free University Amsterdam.
SESSION 4 : ACHIEVING THE SDGS IN A TIME OF COVID-19
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Rikke Munk Hansen
UNESCAP
Rikke Munk Hansen oversees the work on economic and environment statistics at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Rikke has focused on environment and statistics development in Asia and thePacific for more than 20 years. Earlier she worked in the Energy Agency and the Army of the Danish Government. Rikke holds a master in mathematics and computer science.
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Yongyi Min
UNSD – SDG report 2020
Yongyi Min is the Chief of Sustainable Development Goal Monitoring Section at the UNDESA Statistics Division. She manages, coordinates and contributes to the programme of the global SDG monitoring and supports the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG indicators on the development and implementation of the global SDG indicator framework. She has been the lead author of the annual Global SDG Report, SDG Progress Chart and other global SDG related publications since 2016.
Between 2012 and 2015, she was responsible for the programme of the global monitoring of the progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and was one of the lead authors of the Global MDG Reports from 2013 to 2015. She also worked on environment statistics and contributed to the global gender statistical programme. She holds a Ph.D degree in Statistics from the University of Florida.
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Luis Gonzalez
Chief / Web Development and Data Visualization Section / United Nations Statistics Division
Luis Gonzalez Morales is the Chief of the Web Development and Data Visualization Section of the United Nations Statistics Division, where he co-leads initiatives in data interoperability, open data, semantic web technologies, and integration of geospatial information and statistics for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2014, he was part of the Secretariat team supporting the work of the Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development. Since joining the United Nations Statistics Division in 2005, Luis has worked with National Statistical Offices and international partners on methodology and capacity development projects, in the fields of economic statistics, data quality, development indicators, and the coordination of national statistical activities for the SDGs.
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Ramiz Uddin
UNDP Bangladesh
Ramiz Uddin is the Head of Results Management and Data at the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme of ICT Division and UNDP Bangladesh. As the Head of Results Management and Data, his responsibilities include, managing results, coordinating Monitoring, Evaluation and Research, coordinating SDG results management-related activities from a2i with the national partners, coordinating and analyzing Open Government Data (OGD) and Big Data with stakeholders, disseminating results to national and international audiences. He facilitates the data innovation initiatives towards strengthening the culture of evidence-based policy decisions within the government.
Dr. Ramiz coordinates with the relevant Ministries and departments in Bangladesh and outside of the country regarding the indices related to ICT for Development, e-Governance and Open Data. He represents Bangladesh in the ‘Task Group on ICT for SDGs’ formed by ITU and UNDESA. He is working closely with the ITU for developing ICT Thematic Indicators for the SDGs.
Dr. Ramiz deals with the ICT and other indicators with the mission to improve the global ranking of Bangladesh in ICTs and other sectors. He is a member of the ‘National SDG Working Group’ and providing support in implementing SDGs in Bangladesh. He played a pivotal role in drafting the National SDGs M&E Framework for ensuring efficient monitoring of the progress of Bangladesh towards achieving SDGs. In terms of impact evaluation, SDG and RCT (Randomized Controlled Trial), he coordinates research with the leading national and international organizations, including, UNDESA, IGC, IPA, BIT (Behavioral Insights Team, UK), national and international universities, Cabinet Division, Planning Ministry, and National Statistical Office (BBS). Dr. Ramiz obtained his Bachelor and Master in Psychology and Ph.D. in Social Psychology.
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Litia Kurisaqila-Mate
Fiji
Litia is the Assistant Statistician in the Fiji Bureau of Statistics. Her work is centered on satellite accounts or industries that are cross-cutting in nature in which are a culmination of other industries. She has been working on the practical implementation of SEEA Accounts (System of Economic Environmental Accounting) in Fiji under the guidance of ESCAP for the past 6 years and, at the moment, is currently working on Fiji’s Experimental Land Cover Account with Statistics Canada and ESCAP’s GIS. She is particularly interested in using SEEA accounts to not only help inform policy makers but to measure SDG indicators.
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Richard Evans
General Manager / Economic and Environment Insights / Statistics New Zealand
Richard Evans works for Statistics New Zealand as the General Manager for Economic and Environment Insights. Prior to joining Statistics New Zealand, he worked for Statistics Canada as an expert in high-frequency economic indicators. He is passionate about using data science and AI to create user-centric data products from big data sources.
SESSION 5 : MONITORING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF COVID-19
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Ivo Havinga
Assistant Director Economic Statistics at the United Nations Statistics Division/Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNSD/DESA) since 2003.
He is overall responsible for the system of economic statistics, including the national accounts (System of National Accounts, SNA) and its satellite accounts, business statistics, international trade statistics in goods and services, and economic statistics-related classifications such as the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) and the Central Product Classification (CPC).
The recently launched update of the system of economic statistics addresses the new policy demands for accounts and statistics on economic activity and the broader measures of economic progress linking economic activity with the environment and the society in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This update also advances institutional transformation, new data solutions and innovative capacity building initiatives for the global statistical system.
As a member of the senior management team of the United Nations Statistics Division, he maintains an active and user-centered dialogue with public and private sector partners of national, regional and international agencies.
He is also closely involved in the technical deployment and use of the UN Global Platform Network for Official Statistics and the implementation of the Cape Town Global Action Plan for Sustainable Development Data. In this context, he is a strong advocate for a coordinated and integrated policy and statistical approach for the transformation and modernization of the national and international institutional and operational mechanisms. He promotes the use of new data and technologies while ensuring that robust and standards-based statistical frameworks are incorporated from the outset in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Markie Muryawan
Chief of Section, Trade Statistics, United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD)
Mr. Markie Muryawan is currently Chief of Trade Statistics Section of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). As part of the trade statistics work program, he is responsible for its methodology and statistical classification, data - UN Comtrade database, capacity building activities in international trade statistics, and coordination with other organizations. He joined United Nations in 2001, and then moved to UNCTAD as Chief of Statistical Production Unit in 2010 and returned to UNSD to take charge of the trade statistics section. In addition to IMTS, Mr. Muryawan is also active in the topics of International Trade and Economic Globalization and Big Data for Official Statistics and is currently leading the task team on AIS data.
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Diego Alejandro Cerdeiro
IMF
Diego Cerdeiro is an economist in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, where he covers China. Previously, he worked on external sector issues in the Fund’s Strategy, Policy, and Review department. Previous country assignments include the United States, Honduras and Panama. He has done research on international macroeconomics, international trade, financial contagion, and network theory. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
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Ananthanarayan Sainarayan
Chief, Aviation Data and Analysis Sectionm, Air Transport Bureau, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
Mr. Sainarayan is the Chief of Aviation Data and Analysis Section in the Air Transport Bureau at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Mr. Sainarayan is managing various ICAO data and analysis activities ranging from big data analytics, forecasting and air connectivity analysis to economic studies. He is a Chartered Accountant with degrees in commerce and finance and a Master in Business Administration. His professional experience prior to joining ICAO was in consulting and airline industry where he managed portfolios ranging from finance, Capex, audit, risk management to information systems.
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Catherine Smyth
ABS Australia
Catherine Smyth has worked for 5 years in the Prices Branch at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), filling various roles across the Consumer and Producer Price Index teams. She has led analysts in the adaptation of new index compilation and analytical methods stemming from the introduction of supermarket scanner data in the CPI, an area in which the ABS is an international leader. Catherine has driven improvements to data processes and uses scanner data to identify and communicate meaningful insights to stakeholders.
Prior to her role at the ABS, Catherine worked in market research and holds a Bachelor of Statistics from the Australian National University (2014).
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Chhime Tshering
Director, National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan
Chhime Tshering is the Director of the National Statistics Bureau, Bhutan. The National Statistics Bureau is the central authority for collection and release of any official data, and their custodian.
Mr Tshering was appointed as the Director of the National Statistics Bureau (NSB) in 2017. Before joining the Bureau, he worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture in various capacities. He holds a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics from the Michigan State University, USA.
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Kyeongwon Yoo
Sangmyung University
Kyeongwon Yoo is an Associate Professor of Department of Economics and Finance at Sangmyung University. Before joining Sangmyung University, he worked at the Bank of Korea, Korea Insurance Research Institute, and KDI.
His research interests include the several topics of applied microeconomics and consumer finance such as household debt, saving and portfolio decisions as well as household financial behaviors under the uncertainty and fast aging society such as Korea and China.
He has consulted several policy related researches in the public sector such as Financial Services Commission, Korea Federation of Credit Guarantee Foundation, Korea Asset Management Corporation and served as Editor of Journal of Insurance and Finance from 2009 to 2011.
He has published articles in economics and finance journals, including, Review of Economics and Statistics, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Policy Modeling, Review of Network Economics and several Korean academic Journals.
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Mohd Uzir Mahidin
DOS Malaysia
As a Chief Statistician of the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), effective February 14, 2017, he has been devoted his career by serving at DOSM for the past 30 years since his first posting as a Statistician in 1990. He has an extensive experience and specialise in both economic and social statistics where he has served and contributed in various field of statistics such as national accounts; external trade; industrial & construction; and services. His career has spanned domestically as head of national statistical office, Commissioner of Census for Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2020; Executive Committee of Institute Statistics Malaysia, Chairman of the Working Group on Statistical Database and the Chairman of the National Organising Committee of ISI World Statistics Congress 2019. Recently, he was honoured with 2020 Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (CUEPACS) Malaysia Labour Day Icon Award.
His active participation and significant contribution at the international arena is acknowledged through his appointment as the Chair of the Bureau of the Committee on Statistics of the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) 2018-2020; Chair of Bureau for the 7th & 8th Sessions of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Statistical Commission (OIC-StatCom) 2018-2019; Executive Committee of International Association of Official Statistics (IAOS) for two consecutive terms 2017-2019 & 2020-2022; Co-Chair Working Group (WG) on the Development of New Strategic Vision of OIC-StatCom; and most recently, he is re-appointed as vice-chair of the 7th Bureau of the ESCAP Committee on Statistics, 2020-2022 terms. He also served as a UN Human Development Report (HDRO) Statistical Advisory Panel year 2019-2020. He is also often invited to be a panelist and moderator for global statistical events in line with his active commitment internationally.
He is also a member of various expert groups globally as well as international associations such as the ASEAN Community Statistical System (ACSS), Member of the Friends of the Chair Group on Economic Statistics (FOC-ES); UNWTO Tourism Statistics; Expert Group on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) ESCAP; Member of Friends of Chair Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (FOC-FPOS) United Nations; High-Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Monitoring Sustainable Goals (SDG); and the ASEAN Secretariat on SNA Statistics, ISI-South East Asia Network, Regional Programme on Economic Statistics and others.
SESSION 6 : USING BIG DATA FOR SDGS - SDG 9 AND SDG 11
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Niels Ploug
Denmark
Present positions
2008- Director Social Statistics, Statistics Denmark
2004- Associate Professor in Economic Sociology, Economics Department, University of Copenhagen
1992- Associate Professor in empirical economics, Copenhagen Business School
Recent International networks, task forces (selection)
2016-Chairman of the UN Global Working Group on Big Data
2016-Member of the programme committee of the World Data Forum
2016-Member of the UNECE steering group for Sustainable Development Goals
2012-2015: Member of the Prepatory Group for the ESS.VIP.ADMIN
2012-Expertgroup on Quality of Life Indicators, Eurostat
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Dana Thompson
IDEAMAPS Network
The emphasis of Dr. Thomson’s research is identification of ""slum"" residents and other populations who are under-represented in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) population data, and development of tools and methods to improve population data accuracy.
Dr. Thomson currently coordinates the IDEAMAPS Network to map slums, informal settlements, and other deprived urban areas routinely and accurately at scale. She created GridSample.org to support survey practitioners in LMICs to select representative household surveys from gridded population datasets when census data are outdated or inaccurate.
Previously, Dr. Thomson was a Researcher at Harvard Medical School supporting large-scale health system evaluations in Rwanda, Haiti, Mali, and other LMICs. In 2014-15, she was seconded to the University of Rwanda where she lectured and contributed to research capacity-strengthening under the Ministry of Health's Human Resources for Health programme. Dr. Thomson has a BA in Geography from George Washington University, MSc in Global Health from Harvard School of Public Health, and an MSc and PhD in Social Statistics from University of Southampton.
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Robert Ndugwa
UN-Habitat
Robert is the current head of the Data and Analytics Section- a specialized unit that manages urban data and statistics at UN-Habitat Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. Robert also doubles as the lead for methodology development of many urban SDGs under Goal 11 for which UN-Habitat is the custodian agency.
Before joining UN-Habitat, Robert served as a lead for Research, Monitoring and Evaluation at UNICEF Kenya office, where he developed systems for tracking results for children, and provided technical support to government and many partners on monitoring and evaluation systems. Robert is well known for his research, statistical and analytical skills that he acquired while teaching and working at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Heidelberg University and African Population and Health Research Center, respectively.
Robert has published widely in the field of urban monitoring and co-authored many papers in the fields of urban health, epidemiology and statistical modelling, etc. Some of his research articles can be found in the Lancet, Journal of Urban Health, Bulletin of WHO, Child Health Journal, International Journal of Epidemiology, etc.
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Nale Mudau
South Africa (SISNet)
Naledzani Mudau is a remote sensing scientist at the South African National Space Agency. She holds an MSc degree in Remote Sensing, with 15 years of experience working in the fields of remote sensing and GIS gained in private, public and research organisations. Her main research area focuses on human settlements (including informal settlements) mapping and monitoring using imagery. Naledzani currently participates in national, regional and global initiatives that are aimed at promoting the use of earth observation data to support sustainable development and improve decision making in local and regional planning.
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Robin Workman
TRL – RAI SDG 9.1.1.
Robin Workman has spent 25 years as an international road specialist in low income countries. The last 10 years has been with the Transport Research Laboratory as a UK based researcher working on various projects in Africa, Asia, Central America and the Pacific. He has a Master’s degree in Development Studies and specialises in rural roads and development internationally. His specific interest is in remote sensing and geospatial monitoring of roads and he is currently undertaking a PhD in the assessment of road condition from satellite imagery.
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Justin Angelo O. Bantang
PSA Philippines
Justin Angelo Bantang is currently a statistical specialist in the Statistical Methodology Unit (SMU) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Prior to his assignment in his current unit, he has worked in the Statistical Standards Division of the PSA primarily focused on reviewing surveys of the Philippine Statistics System including those of the PSA and conducting research on international statistical frameworks and standards that needs to be adopted in the Philippines.
He finished his Bachelor in Science (Statistics) from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2016 and is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Statistics from the De La Salle University - Manila.
SESSION 7 : USING BIG DATA FOR SDGS - SDG 16
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Angela Me
UNODC
Angela Me is the Chief of the Research Branch at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime where she oversees global, regional and national research in the areas of drugs and crime. She is responsible for global reference research publications such as the World Drug Report, the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, the Global Study on Homicide, and the World Wildlife Crime Report. While working for the United Nations since 1995, she has supported countries to improve their statistical and analysis systems, and she has authored, contributed and supervised the production of UN analytical reports, international statistical standards, discussion papers, and inter-governmental documents in the areas of drugs, crime, population, gender, disability, and migration. She has served in the Scientific Committee of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights. As an Italian national, Ms. Me holds a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Padua in Italy.
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Francesca Rosa
UNODC
Francesca Rosa is currently part of the Data Development and Dissemination Section at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Vienna. She is currently involved in the revision of the overall UNODC data-lifecycle with a focus on innovative techniques to collect, process and disseminate drug and crime related data. She is currently addressing many data governance/management issues with the purpose of streamlining the data collection, processing and dissemination of UNODC statistics. This includes methodological statistical activity on drug and crime related data. In her previous work experience, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations (FAO), she was part of the methodological and innovation team developing methods, standards and tools to improve several FAO data-domains with a focus of agriculture production and food balance sheets. This methodological work included a number of activities beyond the pure statistical research and conceptual design. In particular, she has developed the software routines (R language) to obtain robust, replicable and internationally comparable statistics based on an innovative methodological approach. An Italian national, Ms. Rosa holds a master’s degree in Statistics applied to Economics from the University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy).
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Dilek Fraisl
Citizen Science Data and SDGs
Dilek Fraisl is a research scholar at the Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Program of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Dilek is the chair of the European Commission funded "WeObserve SDGs & Citizen Science Community of Practice" that aims to foster collaboration and consolidate knowledge on the contribution of citizen science to the SDGs across the global citizen science and data and statistics communities. Dilek is also co-chairing the Citizen Science Global Partnership SDGs & Citizen Science Maximization Group, and leading several international research projects related to citizen science.
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Juyoung Song
Penn State University
Dr. Juyoung Song, assistant professor of criminal justice at Penn State Schuylkill, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the College of Law at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea, and then obtained her doctorate degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University. Career appointments have included an assistant professor at the University of West Georgia, and an associate researcher at the Korean Institute of Criminology. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences about “Big Data” and published several articles on big data analysis. She has published “Big Data Analysis Using Machine Learning for Social Scientist and Criminologist” with Cambridge Scholars Publishing in 2019 and five books about big data analysis in Korean.
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Erin Miller
Dr. Erin Miller is the program manager for the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) at the University of Maryland, where she earned a PhD in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her research investigates patterns of decline among terrorist organizations and movements worldwide, using innovative statistical analysis of data from the GTD. She has been part of the GTD research team for more than 15 years, leading the team since 2009. Her roles have included improving the consistency of the data and adding key variables to the database, developing efficient and effective data collection strategies and training, and producing accessible analysis that provides context for current events in terrorism and counter-terrorism. She frequently consults with users of the GTD, including researchers, policy makers, analysts, journalists, and students, and she delivers invited lectures on the GTD and the implications of research methodology for terrorism research.
SESSION 8 : USE OF SATELLITE DATA FOR AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT, OCEANS
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Gordon Reichert
Statistics Canada
Gordon Reichert is the Senior Scientific Advisor, Earth Observation and Geospatial Analysis, Statistics Canada. In 1985, Mr. Reichert completed his graduate degree in remote sensing and has worked with EO data his entire career. He is responsible for the Statistics Canada's EO based Crop Condition Assessment Program and Statistics Canada's Principle Field Crops yield models that use EO data, agroclimatic data and administrative data. These models have replaced two annual occasions of the traditional crop survey, a first for any statistical organization in the world. Mr. Reichert is the research lead for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence using EO data for crop identification at the agency. He is currently the lead for the UN Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics, Earth Observation Task Team on Agricultural Production Statistics.
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Shi Kaifen
Director of Information Technology Division and Chief Statistician of the Department of Rural Surveys, NBS China
Dr. Kaifen Shi joined the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2006. He served as Director of Information Technology Division and is now the Chief Statistician of the Department of Rural Surveys of NBS China. He is in charge of Methodology and Information Technology application, Data Administration Research, Modern Crop Survey Equipment and Procedures Research. Earlier in his career, he was in charge of Crop Acreage Measurement with remote sensing technology. His expertise is on data processing, questionnaire design and RS application. He has fixed-wing and Multi-rotor Drone driving license.
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Kerrie Mengersen
QUT Data Science, Australia
Kerrie Mengersen is a Distinguished Professor in Statistics at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. She is the Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Mathematical Frontiers and the Director of the QUT Centre for Data Science. Kerrie is also an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, and a member of the Statistical Society of Australia and the IMS, ASA, RSS, ISBA and ISI. Her research interests are in mathematical statistics and its application to substantive challenges in health, environment and industry, with particular focus on Bayesian methods.
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Jacinta Holloway Brown
Jacinta is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Previously she was a research associate and PhD candidate in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS). Jacinta's research has focused on developing open source statistical machine learning methods for analysing satellite images for environmental SDG monitoring.
Jacinta has developed and taught hands on workshops on machine learning methods for analysing satellite imagery data for the United Nations, and run these workshops in Bogota, Colombia and Bangkok, Thailand. She has also worked for the Australian Bureau of Statistics for years, more recently in methodology and tourism statistics roles.
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Ken Bagstad
USGS
Dr. Ken Bagstad is a Research Economist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado. He co-leads a team developing U.N. System of Environmental Economic Accounts (SEEA) accounts for the United States, and has advised other nations in the development of SEEA accounts while serving on various international initiatives to the improve implementation of the SEEA. Ken has also helped lead development of Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data and models within the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) project for over a decade.
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Lorenzo De Simone
FAO
Dr. Lorenzo De Simone graduated in forestry science in 2001 and specialized in Earth Observations during his research work at University of California Santa Barbara, and at the University of Federico II Naples and University of Basilicata in Italy where he obtained his PhD in Agriculture Engineering in 2006.
For the last 15 years Dr De Simone has worked for FAO in his capacity of earth observation expert in the field of land cover mapping, crop mapping and agro ecological modelling. He has been responsible for project implementation in Africa, the Middle East and in South East Asia.
Dr De Simone is currently working on use of EO data for official agriculture statistics and SDG monitoring crop type mapping projects in Senegal, Uganda and Lesotho using both supervised and unsupervised methods.
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Hoang Viet Anh
Hoang Viet Anh is a Geoscience specialist with a focus on forest ecology and natural resources management. He has worked with governments, NGOs and development organizations in Vietnam and South-East Asia countries on projects including GIS-based IT system development, forest ecology, biodiversity, carbon accounting, climate change.
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Bruno Sanchez-Andrade
Microsoft
Principal Scientist at Microsoft “AI for Earth”, building the “Planetary Computer”.
Impact Scientist. By training PhD in Astrophysics, rocket scientist by postdoc. Bruno has helped lead Big Data innovation at the World Bank Innovation Labs, served as VP Social Impact at the satellite company Satellogic and Chief Scientist at Mapbox. Bruno has published the book “Impact Science” on the role of science and research for social and environmental Impact. He was awarded Mirzayan Science Policy Fellow of the US National Academies of Science and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
SESSION 9 : GLOBAL DATA COLLABORATIVES AND CO-INVESTMENTS
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Stefan Schweinfest
UN Statistical Division
Stefan Schweinfest was appointed Director of the Statistics Division (UNSD/DESA) in July 2014. Under his leadership, the Division compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develops standards and norms for statistical activities including the integration of geospatial, statistical and other information, and supports countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical and geospatial systems.
Stefan Schweinfest started his career joining the Statistics Division in 1989 in the area of national accounting. He subsequently worked in various other areas, such as statistical capacity building programmes, and indicator frameworks. For many years, he was also responsible for external relationships of the Division, both with member countries as well as with international partner organizations. He has been the substantive secretary of two intergovernmental bodies, the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) since 2002, and the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM) since 2011.
As the Director of the Statistics Division, Stefan Schweinfest supported the work of Statistical Commission and its Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) to develop the global indicator framework to monitor progress towards the SDGs, which was adopted by UNSC at its 48th session in March 2017 and subsequently by ECOSOC and the General Assembly. Under his leadership, the Division works on implementing this framework and ensuring countries receive capacity building support to monitor progress towards the SDGs.
He played a key role in the negotiations leading to the 2011 ECOSOC resolution to establish UN-GGIM and has actively involved himself with global geospatial information management since, including the negotiations leading to a second ECOSOC resolution in 2016 that strengthens and broadens the mandate of this Committee of Experts.
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Dominic Bourcier
Deputy Director / Public Governance and Accountability / Global Affairs Canada / Ottawa, Canada
Dominic has worked in public governance for Global Affairs Canada (and previously for the Canadian International Development Agency) for over 20 years. His team provides technical advice and expertise on policy and programming issues related to public governance and accountability issues (including statistical capacity-building) within the context of Canada’s international assistance, and leads Canada's engagement with the Addis Tax Initiative, the INTOSAI-Donor Cooperation partnership, the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), the OECD Data for Development work stream and the Forum of Federations. He holds an MBA in International Management from the University of Ottawa.
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Elaine Tan
ADB
Elaine S. Tan is Advisor, Office of the Chief Economist and Director General, and Head, Statistics and Data Innovation Unit, Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department, Asian Development Bank. Her work at ADB includes building statistical capacity in developing member economies; undertaking economic research using new data sources and methods; as well as providing support and policy advice to ADB operations. Earlier, she was with the economics faculty at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Government of Singapore. She holds a doctorate in economics from Cambridge University, UK.
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Xian Zude
Deputy Commissioner / National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) / China
Dr. Xian Zude is the Deputy Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China. He is also a senior statistician and a doctoral supervisor. Having been long engaged in official statistics work, his research areas mainly cover statistical methodologies and standards, big data application, SDG monitoring methodologies, rural economy and poverty monitoring.
He is currently a member of the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and expert of the Advisory Board of Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics.
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Gemma Van Halderen
UNESCAP
Gemma Van Halderen is Director of the Statistics Division in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Prior to joining ESCAP in 2018, Gemma was a member of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Executive Team leading, amongst other things, ABS’ contribution to the Australian Government’s Data Integration Partnership for Australia. In 2017, Gemma was seconded to the Commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to lead preparation of the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Data Availability and Use.
Gemma has extensive global experience. She was inaugural co-chair of a UN Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute, a member of the International Association of Official Statistics (IAOS) Executive Committee, the regional editor of the Statistical Journal of the IAOS and an advocate for young statisticians. Gemma holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the Australian National University majoring in Statistics. Her recent interview with the ISI Stats and Stories can be found at https://statsandstories.net/methods/official-statistics-in-asia-and-the-pacific.
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Robert McLellan
Chief Technology Officer / Statistics Canada / Ottawa, Canada
Robert McLellan is Chief Technology Officer at Statistics Canada, where he is leading the Agency's "Data Analytics as a Service" platform transformation, a multi-year major project to replace and digitally transform our analytics and data core and external research services, leveraging cloud analytic and data services as well as open-source platforms. He founded the Digital Innovation team within the Agency to foster new approaches to technology-enabled solutions. He has beenactive in many international data and information standards and architecture initiatives, and is currently the chair of the Technical Delivery Board for the UN Global Platform. With a career spanning more than 35 years he has worked in diverse technology areas, starting off as a chip designer at Bell-Northern Research, moving through software and solution architecture to senior management at Nortel. His career pivoted in 2010 when he started in the public sector, working at Health Canada for a year before moving to Statistics Canada. He holds a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Queen's University, and currently mentors student entrepreneurs in the Queen's Dunin-Deshpande Innovation Centre summer innovation program.
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Niels Ploug
Statistics Denmark
Present positions
2008- Director Social Statistics, Statistics Denmark
2004- Associate Professor in Economic Sociology, Economics Department, University of Copenhagen
1992- Associate Professor in empirical economics, Copenhagen Business School
Recent International networks, task forces (selection)
2016-Chairman of the UN Global Working Group on Big Data
2016-Member of the programme committee of the World Data Forum
2016-Member of the UNECE steering group for Sustainable Development Goals
2012-2015: Member of the Prepatory Group for the ESS.VIP.ADMIN
2012-Expertgroup on Quality of Life Indicators, Eurostat
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Lina Hang
NIS Cambodia
Mrs. Lina Hang is the Director General of NIS, Ministry of Planning, Cambodia. She was also awarded by the Prime Minister the title, "Delegate of the Royal Government of Cambodia" "Chief of National Statisticians". With 40 years of experience in Statistics, her focus is on Population Census/ Survey, Gender Statistics, and Gender Mainstreaming. She also has expertise on various statistical surveys such as Socio-Economic Survey, Demographic Survey, Demographic and Health Survey, Violence Against Women and Children Survey, and Agriculture Census.
She holds a Masters Degree in General Management from Build Bright University, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Mrs. Hang has participated in numerous international workshops and meetings with more than 140 trips to 34 different countries, including extensive training courses on Practical Statistics in SIAP, Japan; Health Communication Population to Policy maker in Hawaii, USA; Gender and Population in Australia National University, Canberra, Australia; and English for International Communication in SEMEO, Singapore. Mrs. Hang is committed to work and enjoys travelling.
SESSION 10 : TRAINING IN USE OF NEW DATA SOURCES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Dominik Rozkrut
President, Statistics Poland, Warsaw, Poland
Dominik Rozkrut is President of Statistics Poland, responsible for setting and executing strategic and developmental goals of Polish official statistics. He represents Polish official statistics in the high-level meetings within the statistical systems of various international organizations, including European Statistical System Committee (ESSC), the Conference of European Statisticians of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (CES UNECE), the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) as well as in the Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (CSSP OECD). He is a member of executive or advisory bodies setting strategic work directions, such as the Vision Implementation Group (VIG), the Friends of the Chair Group on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (FOC-FPOS), the CSSP OECD Bureau and CES Bureau and the UNECE High Level Group on Modernisation of Official Statistics (HLG–MOS). Moreover, Dominik has been chairing the European Statistical System Partnership Group (ESS PG), and leading the Task Team on Training, Competencies and Capacity Development of the UN GWG on Big Data for Official Statistics. Prior to his current position, from 2008 to 2016 he was Director of Statistical Office in Szczecin, responsible for science, technology, innovation and information society surveys, as well as transport and communication statistics.
Dominik earned a Ph.D. degree in economics, statistics, econometrics and time series analysis from the University of Szczecin, Poland. He completed scientific fellowships at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts USA, Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland and UNU-MERIT.
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Christophe Bontemps
UNSIAP, Japan
Christophe Bontemps joined (virtually) the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific as a Statistician-Lecturer in June 2020. Before joining the institute, Christophe was a research engineer specialized in statistics and econometrics at the Toulouse School of Economics. He worked on data analysis and estimation of applied econometrics models in several research programs addressing environmental or food economic issues. He was in charge of the management of several economic databases including a yearly home-scanned database on household’s food purchases. He has published a dozen research papers and has co-written a practical book (in French) on the Stata software for Stata Press editions. He was also a member of the organizing committee for several scientific conferences including useR! in 2019.
Since the beginning of his career, he has been teaching statistics, revenue management and data visualization in several universities, research institutions and engineering schools in France, Italy, China and India. In 2016 he created a MOOC on pricing and revenue management on the FutureLearn platform.
For the past 4 years, he has devoted part of his time to the promotion of open data through data visualization and organized free conferences and courses on this topic. He is co-founder of the Toulouse Data Visualization Association that organizes Meetups and on-line Webinars.
He holds a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics (statistics) from the University of Toulouse and Master’s degrees both in Econometrics from the University of Toulouse and in Computer Science from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse.
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Jeong-ran Kim
Statistics Training Institute, Statistics Korea
Jeongran Kim is a Director of Statistics Training Institute (STI). She was joined STI in 2000 and implemented the training program such as ‘Introduction to Statistics’, ‘Project based Vital Statistics’, etc. for maintaining and developing statistical capacity of officials including staff in KOSTAT. She worked at various divisions of sample design and quality management, etc.(2014-2019). Also, during her career she got a chance as visiting scalar at Institute for Social Research in University of Michigan(2016).
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David Johnson
ONS/Data Science Campus, UK
David Johnson is Deputy Director at the Data Science Campus at the UK’s Office for National Statistics, where he leads a range of data science capacity-building programmes for the national and international public sector. With nearly 20 years’ experience in the US and European tech sectors before co-founding the Campus in 2016, he was part of the leadership team that set up Google’s European headquarters in Dublin before founding his own machine learning start-up and running an EU FP7 research programme on the use of artificial intelligence for improved mobile search.
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Ceri Regan
ONS/Data Science Campus, UK
Ceri is a Senior Capability Programme Manager at the Data Science Campus in the UK and is a member of the UN Task Team on Skills, Training and Capacity Development. Ceri has over 20 years’ experience of working at the ONS in a training capacity and has played an instrumental role in designing many of the analytical and data science training programmes that are being delivered across the ONS, UK Government and Internationally.
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Dominika Nowak
Head of Experimental Research and Analysis Unit / Statistics Poland / Warsaw, Poland
Dominika Nowak is Head of Experimental Research and Analysis Unit at Statistics Poland. She coordinates programs dedicated to data stewardship and the implementation of big data and advanced data processing techniques in the statistical production process. Prior to joining Statistics Poland in 2015, she pursued diplomatic career fostering high-tech business development and R&D cooperation between Poland and Israel, and she led numerous research, capacity building and social projects for the academia and nonprofit sector.
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Alex Measure
Economist, Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States
Alex Measure is an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and co-leader of the BLS Data Science User’s Group. His work focuses on using machine learning and natural language processing techniques to automate difficult information processing tasks including text classification, information extraction, record matching, and error detection.
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Marta Kruczek-Szepel
Specialist at the Data Engineering Department / Statistical Office in Poznan / Poznań, Poland
Marta Kruczek-Szepel is the Specialist of the Data Engineering Department in the Statistical Office in Poznań. Last year she became a member of the Machine Learning Project which is being led by UNECE High-Level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics. She has worked on the ECOICOP classification with the use of machine learning methods. As a developer she cooperated on several projects that are well recognized in the Polish Official Statistics. She has also experience in extracting data from different data sources, ETL process and database management. She is interested in implementing Python code in the context of data engineering, data science and web development
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Krystyna Piątkowska
Statistics Poland
Krystyna Piątkowska works as the specialist in the Data Engineering Department in the Statistical Office in Poznań. In the UNECE project she is responsible for the ECOICOP classification. Krystyna is a statistician with experience in accountancy. She volunteers in the Code For Poznan organization as the Python developer. She is interested in data visualisation and data analysis. She is engaged in the popularization of statistics on her own webpage.
CLOSING SESSION : GLOBAL PLATFORM, GLOBAL TRAINING, GLOBAL COLLABORATION
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Claire Melamed
CEO of Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data
Claire Melamed is the CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. This growing network brings together several hundred members -- governments, private sector, and civil society -- to harness and leverage data and data technology towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. She was previously Managing Director of the Overseas Development Institute, and in 2014, she worked in the office of the UN Secretary General, writing the report of the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution, “A World That Counts”. "We say that every life counts, but we still don't count every life", she says in her advocacy to use the knowledge provided by data to improve lives and protect the planet. Claire is based in London and heads up a global team based in six countries. Claire serves on a number of Boards and advisory groups for institutions including the UK Office of National Statistics Data Science Campus, Government of UAE Task Force on Global Data Commons, Overseas Development Institute Human Mobility Initiative, and Mo Ibrahim Foundation Governance Index.
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Tom Smith
UK
Tom is managing director at the Data Science Campus, joining the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2017. He was previously co-founder and chief executive of Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI), a research and data ‘spin-out’ company from the University of Oxford.
Tom has more than 20 years’ experience using data and analysis to improve public services. Working at the intersection of government, academia and industry, he has led data & research projects with hundreds of local and national public and community sector organisations, including the government’s English Indices of Deprivation. His primary research interests are in using data, analysis and data science to improve public services, machine learning, and assessing non-traditional data sources to improve our understanding of society and the economy.
A life-long data addict, Tom has a PhD in computational neuroscience and robotics, evolving neural networks for robot control (Sussex, 2002), an MSc in knowledge-based systems (Sussex, 1997), and MA in theoretical physics (Cambridge, 1994).
He is currently Chair of the Advisory Board to the United Nations Global Platform for big data & official statistics, Member of Council for the UK Royal Statistical Society, and previously chair of the Environment Agency Data Advisory Group, vice-chair of the Royal Statistical Society Official Statistics section, and a member of the Open Data User Group ministerial advisory group to Cabinet Office. He has acted as an external adviser on opening-up, sharing and using data for multiple government departments.
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Yusuf Murangwa
Director General / National Institute of Statistics / Kigali, Rwanda
Mr Murangwa Yusuf is the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR). He is a professional statistician and operational researcher with more than 17 years of experience in statistics development. He has worked on a wide scope of statistics including: labour, education, economic, prices, agriculture, population and censuses and poverty statistics to mention but a few.
 As the Director General since 2009 he focused on building the capacity of the national statistics system in Rwanda and advocating for the use of evidence in policy and decision-making.
 He’s focus going forward is developing administrative data systems, use of technology in statistics production to improve quality, timeliness and efficiency and establishing an enabling environment for big data and the data revolution in Rwanda.
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Mohammed Hasan
UAE
HE Mohammad Hassan has been the Executive Director of Data & Statistics Sector at Federal Competitiveness and Statistic Authority since 2015. His duties include coordination between government institutions in order to achieve national statistical strategy, supervise the provision of data and information supporting decision makers and currently a member of the United Nation Global Data Working Group for Big Data and Advisor in the United Nation Global Platform for Data.
Prior to that, He worked as Director of Government Sector at Microsoft Gulf focusing in the business development and digitizing government services. He has also worked in the banking sector and has held many positions in the banking and investment sector for individuals and companies, with experience in the field of Information Technology and project management as well as being a certified ISO quality management.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the American National University in addition to the Diploma of Management Information Systems from the UAE Higher Colleges of Technology. Graduated from UAE Government Leadership Program and Completed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Sloan) "Study of the Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on Business Strategy"
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Xian Zude
Deputy Commissioner / National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) / China
Dr. Xian Zude is the Deputy Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China. He is also a senior statistician and a doctoral supervisor. Having been long engaged in official statistics work, his research areas mainly cover statistical methodologies and standards, big data application, SDG monitoring methodologies, rural economy and poverty monitoring.
He is currently a member of the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and expert of the Advisory Board of Global Working Group on Big Data for Official Statistics.
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Bert Kroese
Deputy Director-General / Statistics Netherlands / The Hague, Netherlands
Bert Kroese is Deputy Director-General and CIO of Statistics Netherlands. Innovation and IT are among his responsibilities. Internationally he is chair of the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental-Economic Statistics (UNCEEA), deputy chair of the European Vision Implementation Group and member of the Bureau of the Global Working Group on Big Data. He is also member of the Strategy Board of the Dutch National AI coalition (NLAIC).
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Dennis Mapa
Philippines
Before his appointment as the National Statistician and Civil Registrar General, Dr. Dennis S. Mapa served as Dean and Professor in Statistics of the School of Statistics at the University of the Philippines (UP). He also held notable positions in various organizations and projects such as UP Statistical Center Research Foundation, Inc. (UPSCRFI), Governing Board of the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute (PSRTI), Philippine Statistical Association, Inc. (PSAI), and the Gas Policy Development Project (GPDP).
A multi-awarded researcher, Dr. Mapa continuously conducts researches in the areas of poverty analysis, household savings, fertility, population dynamics, measuring market risk, and forecasting methods for volatility which has won many awards. Aside from being a researcher, he has also written chapters for nationally- and internationally-published books and monographs in the areas of population and development, poverty and hunger, youth unemployment, and energy.
Dr. Mapa has a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics, two Master’s degrees—in Economics and in Statistics, and a Ph.D in Economics, all from UP Diliman. His fondness for Statistics started with his researc in the areas of Econometric and Financial Time Series Analysis, Empirical Economic Growth, Poverty Analysis and Impact Evaluation.
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Louis Kouakou Koua
Manager, Economic and Social Statistics Division, AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK, COTE D'IVOIRE
Louis Kouakou is the manager of the Economic and social statistics division in the statistics department of the African Development Bank. Louis has more than 23 Years of hands on practical experience and expertise in Official Statistic; Data management & dissemination; Results based management (M&E) mainly in in the statistical activities (statistical frameworks, classifications, data production/validation/analysis and dissemination) undertaken both at the regional and national levels in Africa.
Louis has an exceptional experience in collaboration and coordination with international partners and stakeholders involved in statistics in the continent (African Union, UNECA, AFRISTAT, ECOWAS, IMF, World Bank, UNSD, etc.).
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Gemma Van Halderen
UNESCAP
Gemma Van Halderen is Director of the Statistics Division in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Prior to joining ESCAP in 2018, Gemma was a member of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Executive Team leading, amongst other things, ABS’ contribution to the Australian Government’s Data Integration Partnership for Australia. In 2017, Gemma was seconded to the Commonwealth Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to lead preparation of the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Data Availability and Use.
Gemma has extensive global experience. She was inaugural co-chair of a UN Expert Group on the Integration of Statistical and Geospatial Information, is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute, a member of the International Association of Official Statistics (IAOS) Executive Committee, the regional editor of the Statistical Journal of the IAOS and an advocate for young statisticians. Gemma holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the Australian National University majoring in Statistics. Her recent interview with the ISI Stats and Stories can be found at https://statsandstories.net/methods/official-statistics-in-asia-and-the-pacific.
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Risenga Maluleke
Statistician-General, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Risenga Maluleke was appointed South Africa’s 2nd Statistician-General in November, 2017. Prior to November, 2017, Mr Maluleke was the Deputy Director-General for Statistical Collections and Outreach. He has been with Statistics South Africa for the past 20 years. He was responsible for the provincial offices’ data collection for censuses and sample surveys; international statistical development and communications. Mr Maluleke has also been instrumental in International Statistical Development. Mr Maluleke has represented South Africa on countless occasions and has extensive experience in international and diplomatic matters. He has been instrumental in managing Stats SA’s participation in international meetings such as the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC). He holds a BSc in mathematical statistics from the University of Limpopo and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Science from the University of Stellenbosch. He has also completed Senior Executive Programmes from the University of the Witwatersrand and Harvard Business Schools.
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Shin Wook Kang
Commissioner, KOSTAT, Republic of Korea
As the 17th Commissioner of Statistics Korea, Mr. Kang Shin-wook is fully committed to improving survey methodology and developing new statistical indicators which reflect new policy demands. Commissioner Kang is leading Statistics Korea with a vision to make the organization a national data hub in the face of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Prior to being appointed as the Commissioner of Statistics Korea, Mr. Kang served as the Director of Department of Income Security Policy and Head of the Center for Research on Basic Social Protection at Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs(KIHASA). He published multiple reports and papers on topics such as ‘Causes of Rising Income Inequality and Policy Directions for Distribution Structure Improvement(2014)’, and ‘Evaluating the Efficacy of Income Security System of Korea (2017).’ Commissioner Kang is a co-author of ‘A Study of Development and Application of Social Cohesion Index(2012).’ In addition, he has global experiences as a Senior Research Fellow at International Labour Organization(ILO) and Yale University. As a recognized expert on income distribution, policies on poverty and social cohesion, Kang made contributions to national policy making process while serving as the member of Presidential Committee on Policy Planning(2002-2004) and Director of Economy and Industry at Presidential Committee on Aging and Future Society(2004-2005)