SEÁN CLEARY graduated in social sciences and law at UCT, UNISA and Shiraz,Iran, and has an MBA from Henley Management College, Brunel University, UK. He was a diplomat from 1970 to 1985, serving in Tehran, Washington DC and the western USA, and as chief director in Namibia (1983-85); as well as in the economics and financial division and as head of the training division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. For the past twenty years he has been a director of companies, a visiting lecturer in global corporate strategy, economic development and conflict resolution at business schools, universities and institutes in South Africa, Europe and the USA, and a board member of a number of nonprofit foundations. He is a fellow and strategic adviser to the executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, and a member of the faculty of the Parmenides Foundation. His family home is in Constantia, Cape Town.
THIERRY MALLERET holds a PhD and MPhil in economics and an MA in international relations from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris and St Antony's College at Oxford University. From 1988 to 1990, he was chargé de mission in the French prime minister's office in Paris; from 1990-91, resident fellow at the Institute for East-West Security Studies in New York; from 1992-98, associate banker and economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London; and from 1998-99, chief economist and strategist, Alfa Bank, Moscow. Malleret worked from 2000 to 2007 at the World Economic Forum in several capacities, including as head of the flagship Davos programme and lastly as senior director of the Global Risk Network. He is now a partner at Rainbow Insight, an advisory boutiques that brokers ideas and opinions for business leaders and investors". He has written several books, including three novels.
