Andrea Donath leads the German government's contribution to GovStack, an initiative founded to enable sovereign digital public infrastructure development for governments worldwide. She is credited with leading the GovStack team with dedication and endurance, helping governments around the world adopt GovStack's building-block resources to make digital transformation more efficient and less duplicative. GovStack is one of the more widely referenced multi-donor DPI frameworks, providing reusable technical specifications for building blocks such as identity, payments and registries, and Andrea's role has been to sustain the German government's leadership and delivery capacity behind that effort.

Carme Artigas Brugal served as Spain's Secretary of State for Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence from 2020 to 2023, and has been a driving force behind digital rights and rights-based approaches to digital transformation and DPI, with a particular focus on ethical AI.

During Spain's EU Council presidency in December 2023, she led negotiations that secured the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act, and that same year was appointed co-chair of the United Nations' AI Advisory Board, tasked with recommending how AI should be governed internationally. Her work spans Spain, the EU and global policy fora, making her a leading voice in shaping the governance and ethical guardrails AI needs to function as trustworthy DPI.

Dr Zelalem Assefa is Chief Executive Officer for ICT and Digital Education at Ethiopia's Ministry of Education, leading digital transformation across all Ethiopian public schools and higher education institutions. He also directs the Ethiopian Education Research Network (EthERNet), working to build the network infrastructure that links higher education institutions to the research community.

At the Ministry, Assefa played a leading role in implementing the Higher Educational Training Management Information System (HETMIS), built with Microsoft, which gave Ethiopia its first country-wide education data-collection and analytics capability. This has enabled evidence-based policymaking and evaluation where none existed before, helping the country work towards its vision of quality and equitable education for all. He has also driven partnerships, including with Huawei, to accelerate the education sector's digital transformation and build sector-wide ICT capacity. His current portfolio spans national school connectivity, device distribution and teacher capacity building, treating education data and connectivity as shared, standards-based infrastructure rather than isolated institutional tools.

Javier Barreiro plays a leading role in IdLAC, a cross-border initiative building interoperable digital identity across Latin America and the Caribbean. Drawing on more than a decade at Uruguay's Agency for the Development of Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC), Barreiro previously led the team scaling its State Interoperability Platform, foundational infrastructure for secure data exchange across government. He now brings that expertise to IdLAC, connecting national identity systems through shared standards and trust frameworks so citizens can use domestic digital credentials across borders. The initiative has commitments from 12 countries, demonstrated interoperability between multiple national identity systems and builds on more than 300 cross-border procedures already accessible between Brazil and Uruguay. Supported by a coalition including Red GEALC, the World Bank, Co-Develop and the Inter-American Development Bank, IdLAC is advancing cross-border applications spanning trade, migration, education, health and taxation.

Krzysztof Gawkowski leads Poland's digital public infrastructure agenda as Minister of Digital Affairs, combining large-scale digital service delivery with a strong focus on cybersecurity. His flagship achievement is mObywatel, Poland's citizen app, which brings digital identity, official documents and access to public services into a single platform used by millions of residents. An academic lecturer and expert in national cybersecurity, Gawkowski previously served on the technical committee of the Polish Committee for Standardisation and is currently on the Committee on Digitisation, Innovation, and Modern Technologies. Given Poland's high exposure to cyber threats, Gawkowski has made resilience a core part of digital transformation as services scale. His work also advances interoperability and alignment with EU digital identity standards, strengthening trust and connectivity with the wider European digital ecosystem.

Masanori Kusunoki has served as Director-General of Japan's Digital Agency since its launch in 2021. His earlier roles at Microsoft, Yahoo and as CTO of Japan Digital Design gave him private-sector expertise that he now brings to Japan's digital public infrastructure. His crossover into government began early: while still at Yahoo, Kusunoki served simultaneously as an Executive Advisor at the Cabinet Secretariat, leading construction of the Information Provision Network System, the data-sharing backbone of MyNumber, Japan's national identification system. He also led the design of MynaPortal, Japan's citizen services gateway. During the pandemic, Kusunoki played a leading role in Japan's contact-tracing app and Vaccine Registration System, enabling real-time tracking and large-scale vaccination. More recently, he has driven generative AI deployment across government, building shared AI environments for public agencies and using MyNumber as a trust layer. His work demonstrates how established DPI can provide a foundation for the next generation of public services.

Governor Monday Okpebholo has been Senator for Edo State, Nigeria, since June 2023. Since taking office, he has driven a major overhaul of the state's digital governance infrastructure through "Edo Cloud," a fully state-owned e-governance platform built to replace a previous third-party system and give Edo complete ownership of both its backend and frontend digital infrastructure. The platform, also known as Edo-Gov 2.0, is streamlining operations across ministries, departments and agencies, replacing paper-based processes with digital workflows, and has been publicly commended by Nigeria's federal Bureau of Public Service Reforms as a model for subnational digital governance. Ahead of rollout, the state trained over 900 civil servants in the digital skills needed to operate the new system. His administration has also strengthened collaboration between Edo's Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy and the State Bureau of Statistics to advance data-driven governance and digital infrastructure as part of its broader development agenda.

Paula Ingabire has served as Rwanda's Minister of ICT and Innovation since 2018, leading efforts to future-proof the country's digital public infrastructure through AI. With her steer, Rwanda is establishing a National Artificial Intelligence Agency to coordinate AI implementation across government, strengthen access to AI-ready data and computing infrastructure and scale AI-enabled public services. Ingabire's vision for AI infrastructure puts locally relevant applications at the forefront, including a Kinyarwanda language model. She also secured $7.5 million from the Gates Foundation for an AI Scaling Hub, focused on developing and scaling applications in agriculture, health and education. An MIT-trained engineer, Ingabire previously led national e-government and cybersecurity programmes at the Rwanda Development Board, coordinated Kigali Innovation City and helped establish Smart Africa, an iniative that harnesses broadband infrastructure to drive Africa’s socio economic growth.

Pramod Varma is Co-Founder and Chief Architect at Networks for Humanity (NFH), where he is developing next-generation shared technology infrastructure for an AI-driven digital economy. At NFH, he co-created the Finternet vision for shared infrastructure that will make assets easier to verify and transact across systems. He also co-created the Beckn Protocol, a framework for open, peer-to-peer networks designed for AI agents and other participants to exchange value across interconnected global supply and service chains. In the 15 years before this, Varma helped architect some of India's most significant DPI, including Aadhaar digital identity, UPI instant payments, eSign and DigiLocker. Through roles including Chief Architect at the Unique Identification Authority of India and CTO of the EkStep Foundation, Varma has helped build interoperable infrastructure spanning identity, payments, credentials, data exchange and commerce. He also advises governments globally on digital transformation and AI.

As Secretary of Environment, Climate and Sustainability, Raul Protázio Romão has made Pará, Brazil's second-largest state and home to a significant portion of the Amazon rainforest, a compelling demonstration of DPI as a tool for climate governance. He led the development of SICAR PA+, a Rural Environmental Registry system that uses automated analysis and legacy data migration to maintain environmental compliance records for over 200,000 rural properties. Romão also leads an Environmental Inspection platform that tracks enforcement end-to-end, helping prevent cases from lapsing. His Territorial Intelligence Module goes further, integrating data from rural registrations, environmental commitments, licensing and inspections with public datasets to generate actionable insights across the state. Pará has seen significantly reduced deforestation during this time, and these connected systems are emerging as models for other Brazilian states.

Valeriya Ionan has played an instrumental role in building Ukraine's digital transformation ecosystem, establishing its DPI foundations despite the COVID-19 pandemic and wartime. As Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation from 2019 to 2025, she led initiatives including Diia.Business, Diia.Education and CDTO Campus, expanding access to services, entrepreneurship and digital skills for millions of Ukrainians, and preparing public sector leaders for futher transformation. Her work helped shift digitalisation from fragmented solutions to systemic change, as Ukraine rose 97 places in the UN E-Government Development Index over six years. Ionan also helped launch the Global Government Technology Centre Kyiv with the World Economic Forum, and helped advance Ukraine's shift towards an "agentic state", with AI as a core layer of public infrastructure. This includes Diia.AI, a national AI assistant for government services. Today, Ionan advises governments on digital transformation and innovation.

Abdullahi Bihi Hussein has spent his career building Somalia's core digital public infrastructure from the ground up. He currently serves as Managing Director of the Somali Payment Switch, Somalia's national interoperable payments infrastructure connecting the country's financial institutions. Before that, he was Acting Director General and Deputy Director General at the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), where he helped set up Somalia's first functioning national identity system. He was also Principal Advisor at the Ministry of Communications & Technology, where he advised on national digital infrastructure initiatives. Hussein also spent nearly six years as CEO of the Somali Research and Education Network (SomaliREN), building partnerships across academic, research and connectivity institutions, aligning them around shared DPI goals. His career shows a consistent progression through Somalia's foundational digital layers: connectivity, identity and now payments.

Abisoye Coker-Odusote has been Director General/CEO of Nigeria's National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) since August 2023, leading the expansion of the country's national digital identity system. An engineer with 15 years across technology, infrastructure, government and public utilities, she previously served as Deputy General Manager, then General Manager/CEO, of Lagos State's Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency.

She took over an NIMC facing slow enrolment, operational inefficiencies and identity fraud risks. Under Coker-Odusote, National Identification Number registrations have grown from 100 million to over 113 million in a year, and to 136 million by July 2026, aided by her cross-ministry collaboration and closer work with security agencies. She has also begun rolling out ward-level enrolment, Nigeria's most local administrative tier, reaching women, children, older people, people with disabilities and refugees in rural areas previously missed.

Ahmed Al-Suwaiyan has governed Saudi Arabia's Digital Government Authority (DGA) since June 2021, after serving as Deputy Minister of Technology and Development at the Ministry of Finance between 2017 and 2021. He has overseen the advancement and consolidation of Saudi Arabia's digital government infrastructure, including the integration of hundreds of government platforms and a shift from fragmented systems towards shared infrastructure. This has strengthened how government entities connect and exchange data, supported by shared capabilities such as national single sign-on and a central integration layer for data sharing and service coordination. Al-Suwaiyan's experience also spans government technology investment and cross-government digital transformation, including as an Executive Committee Member of the National Digital Transformation Unit and on the boards of the National Center for Government Resources Systems and National e-Learning Center.

Atul Sinha heads the Business Transformation Unit at India's Department of Telecommunications and serves as Director General of the National Communications Academy, working at the intersection of telecommunications, rural digital inclusion and state-level e-governance implementation. His most recent contribution is the Samriddh Gram Phygital Services Pilot, which uses BharatNet rural connectivity to deliver citizen-centric digital services at the village level, including education, healthcare, telemedicine, agriculture, financial inclusion and e-governance. This work pioneers "phygital" services integrating digital access into physical services in a positively reinforcing empowerment of rural residents.

Bhuvnesh Kumar led the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency behind Aadhaar, India's national digital identity system underpinning much of its digital governance and service delivery until his appointment as Secretary of the Department of Tourism in May 2026. As UIDAI's CEO from 2025, he oversaw a period of technological and policy change, strengthening Aadhaar's role in secure digital identity assurance. Kumar is known for advancing initiatives to make digital identity infrastructure more accessible, secure and future-ready across rural and urban populations, and was an early adopter of AI models to improve fraud detection and accuracy. Earlier in his career, he held other senior roles including Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Principal Secretary/Secretary across several Indian state governments, in departments spanning finance, skills and welfare.

Bojana Bajic was a key driver behind Montenegro's national eID deployment, the nationwide electronic fiscalisation of its tax administration, and other interoperability initiatives, including work on trust services and data exchange. She later moved into her current role as Public Policies, Innovations and Digitalisation Officer at the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA). There, she supports Western Balkan countries and Eastern Partnership nations in building their own digital public infrastructure, running workshops and peer-learning events on interoperability, digital identity, trust services and data exchange. With more than 30 years in public administration and a software engineering background, Bajic is recognised for adapting international good practice to the institutional realities of the Western Balkans rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions.

Chanaki Mallikarachchi is Director of ICT at Sri Lanka's Ministry of Digital Economy, where she embeds 'inclusion by design' across the policies and frameworks the ministry produces, including the National Digital Economy Blueprint and the National AI Strategy. She played a key role in Sri Lanka's digital integration initiative, linking core national DPI systems, including the SLUDI digital ID, GovPay, eLand and ManKiwwa, so that citizens can access all of them through a single identity, an effort that has driven over 2.3 million citizen interactions. She previously led IT for the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Council and Local Government, and served as a Deputy Director within the President's Secretariat.

Chris Fechner has been Chief Executive Officer of Australia's Digital Transformation Agency since October 2021, leading digital transformation and ICT reform across the Australian Public Service, including investment oversite frameworks for digital spending. Under his leadership, Australia ranked second overall in the OECD's 2025 Digital Government Index, reflecting progress in digital governance, shared platforms and user-centred services. His work has also focused on simplifying access to government services and strengthening the security and resilience of digital infrastructure. Before joining the federal government, Fechner held senior digital roles in Queensland and at Service NSW, giving him experience delivering citizen-facing services across three levels of government. He has also served as Head of the Digital Profession, building digital, data and AI capability across the public service.

Concettina Cassa is Head of Internet Governance at the Agency for Digital Italy (AgID), where she coordinates Italy's digital public infrastructure agenda, implementing EU digital-policy requirements domestically across data and internet governance frameworks. Cassa points to Italy's digital identity system and eGovernment rollout, foundational pieces of that infrastructure, as a career-defining moment, letting citizens in remote and disadvantaged areas, including the elderly and small entrepreneurs, access essential public services online for the first time and reducing inequalities. She is also a central member of AgID's AI mission and represents the Italian government in international organisations, advancing DPI by ensuring human rights and inclusion stay at the centre of conversations.

Eng. Daniel Sarungi has played a leading role in the development of JamiiStack, an open digital public infrastructure ecosystem of interoperable building blocks. It gives Tanzanian governments, businesses and institutions a shared foundation to exchange information securely and efficiently, instead of running separate systems. The Tanzanian government has now adopted it as its national stack. As a Project Manager and Technical Lead for JamiiStack, Sarungi is behind this homegrown example of an African government building sovereign, reusable DPI rather than adopting an externally designed stack wholesale. Its core includes Jamii X-Change, a distributed data exchange model similar to X-Road but with consent-by-design, alongside Jamii Pocket (a self-sovereign digital identity locker), Jamii Portal (a unified window for all government services) and Jamii Pay (a national payments layer). Sarungi has years of experience across digital in the public sector, including at Tanzania's Personal Data Protection Comission.

Dr Ayanda Hlatshwayo chairs both the Data Exchange Workstream and the Pilot Governing Committee for MzansiXchange, South Africa's national secure data exchange platform, which she has driven from design through to an operational pilot. MzansiXchange does not store data centrally; instead it acts as a governed exchange that lets departments retain ownership of their data while sharing it with authorised entities, with pilot participants including the South African Social Security Agency, the Department of Home Affairs and the South African Reserve Bank. Her work addresses South Africa's long-standing government data fragmentation, convening a complex ecosystem spanning national departments, the Council of Scentific and Industrial Research, civil society and international development partners around a shared, trust-based data infrastructure.

Esther Dweck has been leading Brazil's push for digital public infrastructure as Minister of Management and Innovation in Public Services, with particular focus on payment systems and identity systems, taking measured risks and emphasising the need for digital public infrastructure to generate public value and social impact. She is credited with helping to steer Brazil toward an inspiring example of leapfrogging digital transformation while keeping inclusion central to their approach, aligning with Brazil's broader use of DPI to strengthen social protection and financial inclusion.

Farid Osmanov chairs Azerbaijan's Innovation and Digital Development Agency (IDDA), coordinating the country's digital government, digital identity, interoperability, cybersecurity and innovation agenda. He brings together ministries, government agencies, private-sector organisations and international partners around a shared national digital transformation vision, helping expand nationwide platforms that connect institutions and simplify access to public services. Previously, Osmanov led technology functions at the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and also serves as advisor to the Minister of Digital Development and Transport. Combining technical expertise with public-sector leadership, his work focuses on translating national policy into practical digital infrastructure as Azerbaijan builds a more connected, data-driven and citizen-centred digital state.

Florian Tursky played a pivotal role in advancing Austria's digital government agenda as State Secretary for Digitalisation and Telecommunications, including the nationwide rollout of ID Austria, the country's digital identity system, and a growing ecosystem of digital credentials including a digital driving licence and vehicle registration certificate. At the European level, he contributed to the implementation of eIDAS 2.0 and the development of the European Digital Identity Wallet, advancing interoperable digital identity across borders. Beyond digital identity, Tursky has led initiatives to modernise public administration, expand digital public services and strengthen trust in government technology through citizen-centred design and secure digital infrastructure. He now leads the government-owned Global GovTech Centre Berlin, bringing together his experience across government, industry and global policy to advance GovTech adoption and international knowledge sharing.

Goh Wei Boon has led GovTech Singapore as Chief Executive since 2023, and until recently was also Government Chief Digital Technology Officer for the Ministry of Digital Development and Information. Under his leadership, GovTech provides shared digital infrastructure across government, enabling agencies to collaborate on identity, payments, notifications and data sharing through common platforms, accessible interfaces, secure sign-in and APIs. This includes Singpass, Singapore's National Digital Identity, and the consolidation of e-government services around citizens' life milestones. Boon previously led the Centre for Strategic Infocomm Technologies, where he directed research in infocomm and cybersecurity, and his work today spans standards for cybersecurity architecture. He's a Public Service Commission scholar, holding a Masters from Carnegie Mellon University, and received the Public Administration Medal (Silver) in 2015.

A technology executive with over 15 years of experience in senior leadership roles, Irwin Williams is now Head of Software Development at iGovTT, a state agency under the Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence. Williams has played a leading role in the implementation of verifiable credentials using Trinidad and Tobago's digital public infrastructure stack, guided by the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI). His work is most visible in VerifyTT, Trinidad and Tobago's verifiable credentials initiative, which gives individuals a secure way to access and share trusted credential information while enabling authorised organisations to confirm its validity instantly. By making trusted credentials easier to exchange and verify, this infrastructure is reducing friction in accessing public services and strengthening confidence in digital transactions.

Eng. John Kipchumba Tanui CBS is Principal Secretary for ICT and the Digital Economy in Kenya, helping drive the country's digital transformation and position it as a leading African innovation hub. During his tenure, eCitizen has grown to host over 22,000 government transactions and services on a single platform. Tanui has also led teams advancing interoperability through Kenya's Government Enterprise Architecture and Government Interoperability Framework, enabling more connected systems and data-driven public services. His department is contributing to Kenya's national DPI roadmap, spanning digital identity, payments and trusted data exchange. Before joining the Ministry, he spent more than seven years leading Konza Technopolis Development Authority, Kenya's flagship smart city and innovation hub. He previously spent 15 years at Huawei, helping develop Kenya's telecommunications infrastructure, including the deployment of 3G and 4G networks.

Juan Pablo Garcia has led the digital identification and signature team at Uruguay's Agency for the Development of Electronic Government and the Information and Knowledge Society (AGESIC) for almost six years. He steered the development of firma.gub.uy, Uruguay's digital signature and validation platform, used by more than 15 public agencies, and led the development of ID Uruguay, a federated digital identity system now integrated with over 280 government portals, applications and services. Through ID Uruguay, individuals can use the same identity for over 85% of digital public procedures. Garcia's team contributed to Mercosur's first mutual recognition of digital signatures and, from 2023, helped pioneer cross-border digital identification in the region with Argentina and Brazil. He subsequently helped launch IdLAC and now leads its technical working group, advancing regional digital identity interoperability across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Leanne Cummings has spent almost eight years at the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS), rising through product roles to become Director of GOV.UK Products and Services. She leads the development of shared digital infrastructure that citizens rely on to interact with government. Under her direction, GDS replaced hundreds of separate government logins with One Login, a single sign-in for government services, and introduced AI-powered search to improve how people find information on GOV.UK. She also oversaw the GOV.UK app's development as a personalised way to access government services, now including GOV.UK Chat, an AI feature grounded in official government content. Cummings joined government in 2018 after working in Product and Search at Sky, bringing years of experience and an agile, user-centred perspective.

Louis Pienaar is Executive Director of Engineering Services at Drakenstein Municipality in South Africa's Western Cape, overseeing a diverse portfolio of services, including water, wastewater, electro-technical, roads and stormwater. Under his leadership, Drakenstein has expanded GIS (Geographic Information System) across the municipality, connecting citizen-reported issues with dashboards that help staff track trends, assign work and respond efficiently. The system has logged over 150,000 non-emergency requests since 2020, with more than 95% closed. Pienaar also oversees modernisation of Drakenstein's utility infrastructure, including replacing its 25-year-old electrical SCADA system with a model-driven platform offering real-time grid monitoring, part of a wider initiative that made Drakenstein the first municipality in Africa to deploy next-generation green switchgear technology. His work brings digital infrastructure into both public services and municipal utilities.

Marc-André Loko is Managing Director of ASIN, Benin's national digital transformation agency, overseeing digital identity, interoperability, digital services, trust infrastructure and cybersecurity. Under his leadership, Benin has built a foundational digital identity system covering over 98% of the population and an interoperability platform connecting around 65 public entities and 145 information systems, enabling access to more than 250 digital public services through a secure digital ecosystem. Loko has also advanced trust infrastructure: the national data protection authority, national PKI infrastructure and cybersecurity capabilities, strengthening privacy, security and trust across the digital ecosystem. Beyond Benin, he has championed regional DPI cooperation. The country is piloting the Smart Africa Trust Alliance for cross-border digital identity interoperability and co-leads the Smart Africa Data Exchange initiative with Ghana and Rwanda. Through ASIN, Loko also shares Benin's implementation experience with governments across Africa, supporting wider adoption of interoperable DPI.

Margit Aus heads the EU Digital Identity Wallet portfolio at Estonia's Information System Authority (RIA), leading the country's build-out of the EU Digital Identity Wallet and procurement of a technical partner to ensure that Estonia’s wallet is interoperable within the existing eID ecosystem. This eID tool, prioritising security, will eventually be integrated into Estonia’s leading Eesti application. Aus's 21-year career in the Estonian government has spanned across the Ministries of Finance and Interior.

Mishi Choudhary has been instrumental in building the legal foundations of trusted digital public infrastructure in India. A trained technology lawyer and former President and Legal Director at the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in), she has pushed for digital infrastructure that is free, fair and rights-respecting, not just functional. Her legal and advocacy work has produced measurable, national-scale outcomes: helping protect freedom of speech, holding the right to privacy as a fundamental right and keeping India's DPI systems, including Aadhaar and digital payments, accountable to citizens' rights. Choudhary has played a key role in shaping the legal ecosystem beneath DPI and is a well-established figure in internet law and digital rights, in India and internationally. She's served as Legal Director for the Software Freedom Law Centre in New York, and today, is SVP and General Counsel at Virtru.

As President and CEO of the National e-Governance Division, Nand Kumarum leads three of India's most critical digital public infrastructure platforms: UMANG, DigiLocker and API Setu. UMANG is India's mobile-first gateway to government services, integrating more than 3,000 services across central ministries, states and local bodies. DigiLocker enables the secure issuance, storage and real-time verification of over a billion official documents, while API Setu provides a government API marketplace that enables standards-based data exchange across ministries, departments and ecosystem partners, helping to break down data silos across sectors. Together, these platforms form an interoperable layer connecting government services, digital credentials and data exchange at national scale. With over two decades of civil service experience, Kumarum has helped advance DPI serving the world's most populous country.

Since 2024, Natalie Black CBE has been Group Director of Infrastructure and Connectivity and Executive Board Member at Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator. She leads the regulation of communications infrastructure underpinning the UK's digital public services, alongside Ofcom's work on AI regulation. Black's earlier career helped shape foundations that DPI depends on. As the UK's first HM Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific, she negotiated the UK's first Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore, establishing rules for secure cross-border data flows and digital trade. In Whitehall, she oversaw the UK's 2017 AI Review and led the £1.3 billion National Cyber Security Programme, aimed at strengthening the security of the UK's online infrastructure.

Nicoleta Colomeeț has been Director of Moldova's e-Governance Agency since November 2024, overseeing everything from eGov architecture to digital transformation investment to the adoption and user satisfaction of government services. She has played a pivotal role in launching and promoting key DPI products, including EVO and MIA Instant Payments. She points to EVO, the government's digital identity and services app, as a standout achievement: after the birth of her second child, his passport readiness notification appeared in the app within hours, alongside state benefits and medical leave, triggered automatically without separate applications. Built to the EU Digital Identity Wallet framework, as of September 2026, EVO is now accepted as identification by four Moldovan banks and is becoming the standard way to access services nationwide, with security, consent, interoperability and future cross-border use built in. Colomeeț is now building Moldova's own version of the EU Digital Identity Wallet.

Paul N. Wagner has been Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Digital Service (CDS) since November 2023, leading efforts to modernise digital services across federal government and build reusable platforms and digital identity infrastructure. Under his leadership, CDS has consolidated federal digital credential capabilities, advanced GC Sign-In and GC Issue and Verify, and scaled shared platforms such as GC Notify and GC Forms. His work embeds privacy, security and accessibility into digital infrastructure through formal assessments and digital trust standards. Wagner brings three decades of public- and private-sector technology experience, including more than 20 years in Canada's federal public service. His previous roles include Deputy Chief Information Officer of Canada and Chief Information Officer at Justice Canada, Library and Archives Canada, and the National Research Council of Canada.

Professor Dr Almir Badnjević has played a central role in building the foundations of DPI in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He leads IDDEEA, the state agency responsible for the country's DPI, trusted services ecosystem and national interoperability framework. In his three years as Director, he has accelerated the rollout of digital identity services, operationalised qualified electronic trust services, strengthened interoperability across institutions, expanded secure digital authentication and launched citizen-facing digital services now used nationwide. He achieved this through cross-institutional coordination, consensus-building, sustained leadership and a consistent emphasis on public trust in digital systems. Before entering public service, Badnjević built an internationally recognised career in science, engineering and innovation, and remains a researcher, entrepreneur and contributor to international standards.

Rahmat Danu Andika is Senior Advisor and Principal Expert at Indonesia's National Economic Council. His flagship DPI contribution, Perlinsos Digital, is transforming how social assistance reaches those who need it. In less than a year, the system connected data from eight ministries and agencies, combining poverty indicators with national ID numbers, facial biometrics and previously siloed civil registry data to improve targeting. The initiative directly addresses Indonesia's long-standing challenge of an estimated 45% of social assistance being mistargeted, while paving the way for further DPI use cases across the country. Prior to this, Andika served as VP Director at INA Digital and Director at GovTech Procurement, where he led DPI-based transformation in government procurement. He has also worked to build public-sector capacity for digital governance.

Rosalinda P. Bautista is Assistant Secretary and Deputy National Statistician heading the PhilSys Registry Office at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). As the operational lead of the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys), she has played an integral role in the development of the country's foundational digital ID. Built on Privacy-by-Design, the system applies the latest technology to protect individuals' privacy and data security, and has a digital version that can be accessed via the eGovPH mobile app. Bautista has spearheaded co-location initiatives that bring National ID services directly to citizens, including setting up services in hospitals. By December 2024, over 91 million Filipinos, around 80% of the population, had registered and been verified as unique. By the end of March 2026, the PSA recorded 94.7 million transactions authenticated with the National ID, signalling growing adoption, including improved access to services and more secure transactions.

Rosemary Kisembo has been Executive Director of Uganda's National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) since 2021, having previously spent over ten years in leadership roles at the Uganda Revenue Authority and the Uganda National Roads Authority.

Under her leadership, NIRA has worked to simplify, digitalise and decentralise identity registration, including through an online pre-registration portal, part of the country's growing digital public infrastructure. By October 2024, it had registered 27.4 million people, against a population of 45.9 million. Since May 2025, Kisembo has overseen a nationwide mass enrolment and renewal exercise onto a new biometric system, migrating over 28 million records and bringing the register to more than 35 million Ugandans by February 2026, though rollout challenges remain.

Somaskandan Jayaraman is a Digital Product Lead driving the technology backbone of Ontario's Protect Ontario initiative, a strategy to build a more resilient, self-reliant provincial economy in the face of economic uncertainty. His work is enabling a unified, province-wide permitting and approvals ecosystem that connects multiple ministries through shared data exchange and standardised workflows, consolidating legacy siloed systems into a single integrated platform with a roadmap scaling to thousands of internal users and external stakeholders. He is also an integral contributor to Ontario's Inclusive Tech Talent (IT2) Program and advocates for responsible, accountable AI in government, helping ensure the province's evolving digital infrastructure is inclusive, trustworthy and grounded in responsible use.

Tanusree Deb Barma has been pivotal in transforming India's digital identity ecosystem. After almost six years in senior roles at the Government of Tripura, including Secretary of the IT Department and the Science, Technology and Environment Department, she is now Deputy Director General of Technology Development at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Under her leadership, the Aadhaar facial authentication platform scaled from zero to over 200 million authentications annually, letting businesses and government agencies verify identity securely without buying specialised biometric hardware. She also launched the new Aadhaar App, cutting demographic-update times from days to minutes through a mobile-first workflow. She has also driven AI-based fraud detection, risk management and citizen protection in digital identity systems. Aadhaar's achievements, delivered under her leadership, earned the project the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration.

Tariq Malik is a global adviser on digital identity governance and Safe DPI, drawing on large-scale implementation experience in Pakistan and internationally. Across two terms as Chairperson of Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), he spearheaded one of the world's largest national digital identity systems, with more than 145 million Pakistanis enrolled. This infrastructure supports biometric authentication, social protection targeting, digital payments, electoral integrity and eKYC at a national scale. Earlier, as Chief Technical Advisor to the UNDP, Malik supported Malawi's development of a foundational national identity system, now used across public services and for financial inclusion, voter registration, SIM registration and tax administration. Today, he advises governments and multilateral institutions across Africa, Asia and beyond on building resilient, inclusive and sovereign DPI grounded in rights, trust and accountability.

Ts Nik Zalbiha binti Nik Mat heads Jabatan Digital Negara (JDN), Malaysia's national digital department overseeing whole-of-government digital transformation, shared digital services and digital government infrastructure. Among her achievements is the Digital Document Management System 2.0 (DDMS 2.0), a joint effort with Arkib Negara Malaysia (the National Archives of Malaysia) that manages government records across their full lifecycle, from creation and capture to storage, use and eventual disposal.

By cutting duplicate systems and enabling cross-agency data sharing, the infrastructure supports more seamless, citizen-centric public services while keeping records compliant with the National Archives Act 2003 (Act 629). Now being implemented across 395 agencies with over 56,000 users, DDMS 2.0 is replacing physical filing, letting public officers complete all actions and approvals digitally, speeding up processes and making them more transparent and easier to trace.

Victoria Wray is Manager of Agency Standards and Integration at New Zealand's Public Service Commission, Te Kawa Mataaho. Her cross-disciplinary team sets interoperability standards across the country's digital government agencies, so that services and data can work together. She drives joined-up user experiences across government applications, work that depends on cross-agency collaboration, and works on the development of the New Zealand API Standard, which ensures software and datasets are accessible across government in a timely way.

As Programme Director of Digicampus, Wouter Welling leads a GovTech hub bringing government, academia, civil society and the private sector together to address shared DPI challenges through initiatives like Scaling Tickets. At Digicampus, he advances cross-sector experimentation around digital identity, data exchange, trust frameworks and emerging technologies. Previously, at the Ministry of the Interior (BZK), Welling steered digital identity policy alongside national policy on AI, algorithms and digital inclusion, embedding transparency, security and digital rights into core government architectures. As Product Manager for MijnOverheid at Logius, he also contributed to the national portal through which citizens securely access government information and services using DigiD or another European login. Across these roles, Welling has promoted human-centric DPI grounded in privacy, inclusion and public values.

Yodahe Zemichael leads Ethiopia's National ID Program as Executive Director, overseeing Fayda, the country's flagship digital identity system. In just three years, Fayda has registered more than 50 million people, around 35% of Ethiopia's population, and is now used by over 150 organisations, supporting around two million identity authentications daily. Zemichael sees Fayda as a central pillar of the Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy, providing residents with a unique, biometrically verified identity that enables access to digital services across the country. He also serves as Deputy Director General at the Information Network Security Administration and holds a Master’s in Mechatronics, bringing two decades of technical and government experience.

As Deputy Director of China's National Data Administration (NDA), Yu Ying shapes the country's data infrastructure and data-system agenda, with particular impact on data exchange and digital government. In August 2026, Yu steered the NDA's launch of pilot programmes to build new models of international data cooperation, focusing on enabling cross-border data flows, aligning data-related rules, advancing mutual recognition of data standards and strengthening the connectivity of digital infrastructure. 20 pilot initiatives, now progressing steadily, span areas from data infrastructure and standards to cross-border service ecosystems, with each pilot location tailoring its approach to local conditions. Ying previously directed the Science and Technology Department at China's National Radio and Television Administration.