James Kofi Annan is founder and president of Challenging Heights in Ghana. He started the multiple award-winning organization to combat child trafficking in the fishing industry on Lake Volta, after spending seven years there as a modern child slave. He previously served as board chair of Family for Every Child for six years.

James Mackie is a specialist on EU development policy with a career of some 30 years in international development cooperation. In January 2012, he was appointed as a senior adviser on EU development policy in the European Center for Development Policy Management. He is also a visiting professor at the international relations and diplomacy department of the College of Europe in Bruges.

James Karani is a Devex correspondent based in Washington. He has served as a reporter for CNBC Africa and KTN TV, and was in 2011 nominated for a DABRA award for his coverage on business and development in Africa. An economist by training, he now covers development cooperation involving USAID and a host of other aid organizations in the U.S. capital and beyond.

James O’Brien is executive coordinator at the International Forum for Volunteering in Development. Prior to joining the forum, he spent a decade in various roles with Voluntary Service Overseas, most recently as Volunteering for Development leadership adviser. He has served as coordinator of the Volunteer Groups Alliance and chair of the Post-2015 Volunteering Working Group and worked with Better Care Network and Lumos on responsible volunteering.

James Sale is a health financing and governance advocate, currently managing policy, advocacy, and financing at United for Global Mental Health. Prior to this, Sale led Save the Children’s global health financing policy and advocacy, and previously established Transparency International’s health sector anti-corruption program. Sale began his career in public financial management and governance at Crown Agents after working on vaccine surveillance at the World Health Organization.

James Shepherd-Barron is a disaster management consultant and disaster epidemiologist who has spent the past 22 years advising governments and international aid agencies on how to reduce the risk posed by natural hazards like floods, earthquakes and cholera epidemics, and how to coordinate response operations when all else has failed and catastrophe has ensued. He is currently the Shelter Cluster Coordinator in the Philippines, helping manage the response to Typhoon Haiyan.

James Watt is a former British ambassador in the Middle East and a political risk consultant with the Ambassador Partnership based in London. He has served in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.

James Butcher is the executive vice president of Chemonics International's global health and supply-chain office and currently oversees the USAID global health and supply chain program — procurement and supply management project. A private sector development and supply-chain specialist, Butcher has spent more than 20 years at Chemonics where he launched Chemonics' first knowledge and innovation department, and served as senior vice president for the global health division, strategic solutions and communications division, and Africa and Haiti, East Africa, and Europe and Eurasia regional business units. He has also conducted technical assignments worldwide and served as a regional representative in Southeast Europe, and as chief of party of the Armenia Micro Enterprise Development Initiative.