Profile 

Since 1993, Dr. Pahurat Kongmuang Taisuwan worked for the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, preparing and responding to emerging infectious diseases. Then in 2013, Dr. Pahurat moved to the Bureau of Risk Communication in the same department. Dr. Pahurat was encouraged and established many training, procedures, and guidelines regarding disease crisis risk communication, including the COVID-19 crisis. Nowadays, Dr. Pahurat is the director of the Secretariat Office of the Royal Development Projects Committee, Department of Disease Control. Dr.

Ms Lieke Visser is the technical officer at the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WHO WPRO) working in the World Health Emergency (WHE) team, based in Manila, Philippines. She leads the WHO WPRO’s risk communication work and has been involved in the COVID-19 pandemic response as the pillar lead for Strategic Communications within the COVID-19 Incident Management Support Team (IMST).

Anna Biernat is Communication Officer with the WHO’s Regional Office for the Western Pacific, based in Manila, Philippines. In this role, Anna supports strategic communication activities and plans to achieve better health outcomes and impact within the Region. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anna has also been actively involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the regional COVID-19 communications strategy, including leading the Strategic Communications Pillar as part of the regional COVID-19 Incident Management Support Team (IMST).

She joined ADBI after more than 20 years as a field journalist and editor at Associated Press (AP). She covered various disasters, coups and conflicts across Asia, and coordinated coverage of summit and ministerial level meetings of fora such as APEC, ASEAN, the G7, and G20. She also managed AP’s editorial activities and budget for Asia and the Pacific as Asia Deputy Planning editor.

Kaori has an MA in Communications from Leeds University in the United Kingdom and a BA in Arts from Keio University in Japan.

Gerard Ryle is the director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 2011. He led the worldwide teams of journalists working on the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers investigations, the biggest in journalism history.

His work as a journalist began in his native Ireland, and he spent more than 20 years working as an investigative reporter and editor in Australia. He was later a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan, and in 2013 he accepted an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege, on behalf of ICIJ.

James Chen has worked in the communications industry and energy industry for over 15 years. He is a professional in sales management, channel management, team management, and project management and project negotiation.

Sherzad Ali Khan is working as Coordinator of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) for Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral (GBC). He is responsible to ensure coordination amongst AKDN agencies in Pakistan for integrated community-driven development programs with multiple themes including renewable energy, agriculture, employment generation, physical productive infrastructure, and communication. He also manages GBC strategy with a large component of energy development by encouraging community-based micro and mini hydro projects with AKDN own resources and donor funds.

Chris Charleson is a Senior Communications Specialist at ADB's Department of Communication.