Safdar Parvez joined ADB in 2002 and was appointed Director for the Central and West Asia Department’s Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination Division in 2016. He became an Advisor at the East Asia Department in September 2021 and was appointed Country Director for the People’s Republic of China in November 2022. 

As Country Director, Safdar oversees the entire ambit of ADB’s operations in PRC and is responsible for managing the country relationships, overseeing knowledge work, and supervising the work of the resident mission staff. 

Murat Midas serves as a Section Manager in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Department at the Ministry of National Education of Türkiye, where he contributes to the development and implementation of policies aimed at strengthening vocational education systems.

You Ji serves as the Consulting Team Leader for a Project Management Consulting (PMC) firm supporting an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-financed project in the People’s Republic of China. In this role, he provides overall leadership and technical oversight for project implementation, ensuring alignment with ADB requirements and national development priorities. 

Narangerel Nyamsambuu serves as the Director of the Technical and Vocational Education Department at the Ministry of Education of Mongolia, where she leads efforts to strengthen and modernize the country’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system.

Homid Hoshimzoda serves as the First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Tajikistan, where he plays a key leadership role in shaping national education policy, strengthening institutional capacity, and advancing international cooperation in the sector.

Ryan is a neurodivergent entrepreneur, medical laboratory scientist, and inclusion leader in the Philippines. He founded Virtualahan and Spectrum, which have created thousands of jobs for persons with disabilities and other excluded communities—transforming his own experiences of poverty and disability into meaningful opportunities for others. For over a decade, Ryan has built systems that dismantle exclusion, earning recognition from the likes of Ashoka, TED, and Forbes. 

Unika works in the education and skills sectors in South Asia. Prior to joining ADB, she worked with the World Bank education team for three years, most recently on the flagship World Development Report 2018 on education, in which she assessed the role played by inherent system complexities as well as political economy forces in implementing education policies and programs. She has extensive experience conducting analytical research to answer policy-relevant questions, notably on school governance and financing, social security, and financial inclusion.