Asa Torkelsson serves as UNFPA Chief of the Seoul Representation Office in the Republic of Korea. She has previously held positions as UNFPA Representative in Malaysia, Country Director for Thailand, and Representative Bangladesh. Asa is a sociologist and development economist with a career spanning 25+ years in the multilateral system (FAO, IFAD, UN Women, UNFPA, World Bank) providing leadership, advice, innovative solutions and partnerships, research and financing towards gender equality and women’s empowerment, serving at country, regional and HQ levels across multiple regions. Asa holds a Ph.D. in Sociology, specializing in Economic Sociology, Rural Sociology, and Gender Studies, a master’s degree in development economics and a bachelor’s degree in international social science.

Deputy Director, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Ms. Aliona Cretu is the head of the Division for Demographic Policy within the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Moldova. She has 17 years of experience in the area of demography and population. She drives the demographic policy agenda and implementation of the Demographic Resilience Programme in the Republic of Moldova, by advancing data governance, active ageing and family friendly policies. She led the government's efforts to expand choices for families with children and providing opportunities for work-life balance.

Gabriela Alvarez Minte is the Regional Gender Advisor for UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. An international development practitioner, she has worked extensively in the United Nations System at the national and country level. Specializing in gender and development, she has over 20 years of experience in the international cooperation system in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and globally, working on women’s empowerment, gender norms, and the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls. She holds a PhD in development studies from Birkbeck, University of London, has been a guest lecturer at international academic seminars, and has published academic peer reviewed papers and many reports. She also holds a degree in Social Anthropology from Universidad de Chile and a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Oxford (Green Templeton College).

Ester Lazzari is a social demographer and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Vienna. She received her PhD in Demography from the Australian National University in 2022. Her research centres around the causes and consequences of late fertility, with a particular focus on how assisted reproductive technologies influence fertility trends. Her research has been published in demographic and medical journals such as Population and Development Review, Human Reproduction, and Population Studies.

Melinda Mills (MBE, FBA) is Professor of Demography & Population Health and Director, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford UK. Her work is highly interdisciplinary, focussing on biological, geospatial, social, economic and institutional factors related to fertility. Her work is in the area of applied statistics, public health policy, demography, life course, labour market and genetics. She is a Special Advisor to the European Commissioner of the Economy and a Trustee of the UK Biobank. She also holds a part-time position at the Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance (University of Groningen) and Department of Genetics (University Medical Centre Groningen), the Netherlands.

Michael Herrmann is the Senior Adviser on Economic, Demography and Development at UNFPA with 25 years extensive experience in managing the science-policy interface. Michael supports the formulation of development strategies, policies, and programmes; translates insights into value propositions, products, and services; and cultivates partnerships with governments, multilateral agencies, academia, businesses, and civil society. Member of the Global Expert Network of the World Economic Forum (WEF); author and co-author of more than a dozen flagship reports of the United Nations (UN); and editor and lead author of "Consequential Omissions” - on the ways in which demographic megatrends shape progress towards sustainable development.

Bok-Ju O is Deputy Director of the Social Statistics Planning Division at KOSTAT. In her current role, she manages the production and dissemination of low fertility indicators and parental leave statistics.

Chantal Munthree is the Director of Midyear Population Estimation and Projections at the NSO of South Africa (StatsSA). She holds a Master's degree in Demography and Population Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her expertise is in reproductive health, HIV and ageing. Her current position involves the development of population and household estimates at various levels of geography necessary for resource allocation and planning in the country; this contributes to designing and evaluation of population and housing policy. Her position entails extracting data from the South African data ecosystem to meet key reporting frameworks i.e. SDG’s and Agenda 2063.

Ms. Julia Bunting currently serves as the Director of the UNFPA Programme Division. She has over 25 years of experience in the public and non-profit sectors. As President and CEO of the Population Council (2015-2023), Julia spearheaded the development and implementation of a transformative strategic plan, significantly strengthened resource mobilization efforts bringing in new funders, and enhanced focus on research utilization and impact. Previously she served as a Director at the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and worked at the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She has served on numerous global health boards including Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) and the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition.

Setsuya Fukuda is a Senior Researcher at National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, where he conducts demographic research on the inter-relationships between gender, family formation and family policy. His current research focuses on gender role division, educational assortative mating, fertility and intergenerational transfers in international comparative settings, looking, in particular, at how Japan’s gender structure and intergenerational relations are going to change in relation to population decline, new family policies and technological development.

Soyi Cheong is a Research Fellow at the Land and Housing Research Institute of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, whose research focuses on critical issues related to land and housing policy in Korea. Dr. Jeong actively participates in various working and advisory groups addressing pressing social challenges in Korea. She serves as a member of both the Land and Transport Regulatory Innovation Committee and the Administrative Committee for the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy. Previously, she was a member of the Special Housing Committee for the Young under the Presidential Committee of National Cohesion.

Jasmin Passet-Wittig is a sociologist and family demographer in the fertility research group at the Federal Institute for Population Studies in Germany (BiB). She leads a project on infertility and assisted reproduction and serves on the steering committee of the EAPS working group on the same topic. Her current research explores the interrelations between reproductive health, fertility behaviours, and outcomes. Her work has appeared in journals such as European Journal of Population, Population Studies, Social Science and Medicine and Human Reproduction Open.

Jean Mackenzie is a foreign correspondent and documentary maker for the BBC. She is currently based in Seoul, covering the Korean Peninsula. Jean has reported from Asia, the Middle East and across Europe, where she sought out under-reported countries, including the Balkans and Baltics. She reported from Italy during the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, covered the political uprising in Belarus in 2020, and the economic collapse of Lebanon. Prior to her work abroad, she reported for the BBC’s BAFTA-award-winning Victoria Derbyshire Programme, where her investigative reporting on women’s rights led to legal change. Part-Scottish, part-Londoner, Jean was born in Scandinavia and grew up in the UK. 

Mijeom Yi is the Lead of the Pregnancy Support Team in the Healthcare Division of the Citizen’s Health Bureau of Seoul Metropolitan City. She is in charge of low-fertility response programs, mother and child health programs, and infertility treatment for citizens, including the establishment and operation of the Infertility Depression Counseling Center. Previously, she served as Director for Dongdaemun District Healthcare of Seoul Metropolitan City.

Arnstein Aassve is a Professor of Demography. He currently leads the FutuRes project—Towards a Resilient Future of Europe. His research spans demography, sociology, economics, and public health, with numerous publications in these fields. In addition to his research, Arnstein directs the PhD program in Social and Political Science. He has previously served as the undergraduate Dean, and chaired ERC panels for SH3 and SH7. He has been awarded two ERC grants. He has served as expert for Eurofound, OECD and the UN and from 2024, he will serve as Chair of the Scientific Board of the Population-Europe Policy Lab.

Seik Kim is a Professor of Economics at Korea University with expertise in Labor Economics, Demography, and Empirical Microeconomics. Before his current role, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and his B.A. from Seoul National University. Professor Kim has an extensive publication record in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Human Resources and Demography. His research examines immigrant assimilation patterns into host economies, the processes of human capital accumulation, the influence of culture, beliefs, and social norms on economic outcomes, and effects of employer learning and discrimination in the labor market.

Mr. LEE Hee-sup commenced his diplomatic career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Republic of Korea, in 1987. His career has spanned various positions, including serving Assistant Secretary at the National Security Council (2005), Director of Northeast Asia Division at MOFAT (2006), Minister-Counsellor in Australia (2007), and Minister at the Korean Embassy in Indonesia (2011). He has also served as strategic positions such as Deputy Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Office of the President, ROK (2012), and later held Deputy Secretary for Policy Coordination at the Office of National Security (2013). Prior to his current role as Secretary-General of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, he served as Consul-General at the Korean Consulate-General in Fukuoka, Japan (2020). Mr. LEE completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Studies at Yonsei University, Seoul, in 1985.

Dr. Hwang is Head of the Financial and Monetary Economics Studies Team at the Bank of Korea’s Economic Research Institute (ERI). He has been working for the Bank of Korea since 2003, performing various research in the Research Department and Monetary Policy Department. His areas of interest include central bank communication, household portfolio choice, and fertility decision-making, with a focus on the behavioral perspectives underlying these decisions. Dr. Hwang received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Sungkyunkwan University, both in Economics.

Ignacio Pardo is a Senior Researcher and Professor at the Population Program (Universidad de la República, Uruguay). He holds a Master's degree from the same institution and earned his PhD from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). He served as President of the Latin American Population Association (2019-2020) and coordinated the Uruguayan chapter of the Generations and Gender Survey (2022). His research focuses on low fertility, family change, population development, and population policies.

Ju Hyun Lee is Director General for Coordination and Planning at KOSTAT, where she oversees the organization’s longer term innovation, finance, budgets, and international cooperation and manages relationships with the National Assembly. She began her career in government service in 2000 at the Office for Government Policy Coordination and has since held various positions in the Ministry of Planning and Economy and the Ministry of Land Transport and Infrastructure. With over 20 years of experience in government service, she has made substantial contributions to economic planning, policy-making and monitoring, and budget.

Anna Kurowska is the Vice-Head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Labour Market and Family Dynamics (LabFam) at the University of Warsaw. She holds a PhD in Social Policy and is currently leading a project titled "Fathers' Freedom of Choice (Not) to Use Parental Leave," conducted across Japan, Germany, Sweden, and Poland with funding from the National Science Centre in Poland. Anna serves on the board of the European Network for Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet) and is a full member of the International Network for Leave Policies & Research. Her research focuses on work-family nexus, childcare policies, female employment, and fertility intentions.

Eunsup Jang is Director of the Population Policy Coordination Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, where he manages the organization’s population policy governance work with particular focus on mitigating low-fertility challenges and fostering family-friendly culture in the society. Director Jang has many years of public service experience in the Ministry, including in the office of Director for Social Service Policies and Director for International Cooperation.

Ki-Soo Eun is a sociologist and demographer, got a PhD in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and currently is Professor of sociology and Demography, Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University in Korea. Prof. Eun is also an expert on time use research with publications and articles on work-life balance, time poverty, study time and sleep for adolescents.Prof. Eun currently serves as President of Korean Association for Time Studies in Korea and Vice-President of International Association for Time Use Research (2019-2027).He research interests cover comparative family study, time use, gender studies, transnational migration, migrant care workers, care economy, inclusive growth and inclusive nation building.

Dr. Eunji Kim is a senior research fellow at the Korean Women's Development Institute (KWDI), specializing in family changes and policies in Korean society. At KWDI, she served as the head of the Family and Low Fertility Research Center and is currently the Director of Planning and Coordination. She has been a subcommittee member for the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy and the Presidential Committee for Policy Planning. Her key research includes "The 4th Basic Plan for Low Fertility and Aging Society", "A Paradigm Shift in Policy Responses to Low Birthrate", and "International Comparative Indicators for Families and Children".

Allan Puur is Professor of Demography at School of Governance, Law and Society at Tallinn University, Estonia. He holds a PhD in Demography and is currently leading a project titled "Contemporary demographic development: trends, factors, and policy responses" with funding from the Estonian Research Council. Allan is a coordinator of the Generations and Gender survey (GGS) in Estonia, he has served in various advisory roles for national institutions. His current research focuses on fertility, gender roles, and family policies.

Anna Rotkirch is Research Professor and Research Director at the Population Research Institute of Väestöliitto, the Family Federation of Finland. She is currently director of “Social networks, fertility and wellbeing in ageing populations” with funding from the Strategic Research Council of Finland. Rotkirch has also served as demographic rapporteur to the Finnish Government. Her current research focuses on reasons for the recent fertility decline.

Dr Gitau Mburu, MD, MPH, PhD, is a Scientist with the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO’s SRH Department hosts the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP).

Karolina Andrian is a founder and president of the Share The Care Foundation in Poland. Social entrepreneur in Femmeritum, and Board member of COFACE, she is an expert in the area of gender equality, DEI and parental equality.