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WATER AT THE INTERSECTION
OF EVERYTHING

7-10 DECEMBER 2026
Abu Dhabi | United Arab Emirates
Ideas Abu Dhabi returns for its seventh edition as part of the 2026 UN Water Conference, bringing together leaders, thinkers, and innovators from around the world to explore not just the future of water, but the future of everything that depends on it.

Join us as we convene diverse perspectives, surface bold questions, and spotlight UAE-anchored solutions to one of the world’s most critical conversations.

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Rima Al Mokarrab
Rima Al Mokarrab
Executive Director, Strategic Affairs Unit of the Executive Affairs Authority

Rima Al Mokarrab is Executive Director of the Strategic Affairs Unit of the Executive Affairs Authority (EAA). The EAA provides analysis and advice on a variety of portfolios to the President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Ms. Al Mokarrab is on the Board of Trustees of New York University, and on the Board of Trustees of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies (ECSSR). Ms. Al Mokarrab also is Chair of Tamkeen, an organization that plans, develops, and delivers projects on behalf of the UAE, and co-founded and currently co-chairs the annual Abu Dhabi Ideas Forum in partnership with the Aspen Institute.  She is the Vice Chair of the Board of Zayed University. She previously sat on the Board of the UAE Space Agency.

Bill Gates
Bill Gates
Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bill Gates is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As co-chair, he shapes and approves foundation strategies, advocates for the foundation’s issues, and sets the organization’s overall direction. He works with grantees and partners to further the foundation’s goal of improving equity in the United States and around the world.

Bill co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen and led the company to become the worldwide leader in business and personal software and services. In 2008, Bill transitioned to focus full-time on his foundation’s work. Through his private office, Gates Ventures, he pursues his work in climate change and clean energy innovation, Alzheimer’s research and other healthcare issues, interdisciplinary education, and technology. He is also the founder of Breakthrough Energy, which works to address climate change by supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, big thinkers, and clean technologies.

In 2010, Bill, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett founded the Giving Pledge, an effort to encourage the wealthiest families and individuals to publicly commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropic causes and charitable organizations during their lifetime or in their will.

Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio
Founder & CIO Mentor of Bridgewater Associates

A global macro investor for more than 50 years, Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater Associates out of his two-bedroom apartment in NYC and ran it for most of its 48 years, building it into the largest and most successful hedge fund in the world under his leadership. Ray remains an investor and mentor at Bridgewater and serves on its board.

He is also the long-running New York Times bestselling author of Principles: Life and Work, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, and Principles for Navigating Big Debt Crises.

He graduated with a B.S. in Finance from C.W. Post College in 1971 and received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1973.

He has been married to his wife, Barbara, for more than 40 years and has three grown sons and five grandchildren.

He is an active philanthropist with special interests in ocean exploration and helping to rectify the absence of equal opportunity in education, healthcare, and finance.

H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair
H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair
Chairman of Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Bank

His Excellency, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mashreq Bank. He was the CEO of Mashreq for nearly 30 years and under his leadership, Mashreq grew from a small local bank, to a leading customer centric financial institution in the region known for its innovative products and services.

Furthermore, His Excellency is a member of the Board of Directors of Abdullah Al Ghurair Group of Companies, one of the biggest and most successful business groups in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, with operations spanning more than 20 countries and business roots stretching back half a century.

His Excellency was elected as a speaker on the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council (UAE Parliament), from 2007 until 2011. Previously, he sat on the Board of Directors of major companies such as Emaar, Dubai Investments, Visa International, MasterCard, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Co-Chairman of the Arab Business Council – World Economic Forum (WEF). He was also a member of the Consultative GCC Council for the GCC Leaders and President of The Knowledge Fund, and a member of the Board of Trustees of New York University, USA. His Excellency holds an Honours’ Degree from the California Polytechnic State University in Industrial Engineering.

Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe
Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe
Co-Founder & CEO of the Motsepe Foundation

Dr Precious Moloi-Motsepe trained as a medical doctor. She is a businesswoman, philanthropist, and Chancellor of the University of Cape Town.

She is CEO of the Motsepe Foundation, a philanthropic organisation that she co-founded with her husband Dr Patrice Motsepe in 1998. Since becoming one of the first families from Africa to sign the Giving Pledge in 2013, she has grown the Motsepe Foundation into one of the largest philanthropic organisations on the continent.

The Motsepe Foundation has several long-standing programmes in education, aimed at STEM fields, and community development, to enable access to water, sanitation, technology, and other resources amongst underserved communities. With local and international partnerships, the Motsepe Foundation contributes to 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Motsepe Foundation became one of the first investors from Africa to join the Breakthrough Energy Ventures to identify opportunities to mitigate negative climate change effects. Dr Moloi-Motsepe is also a partner to the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship to advance the social entrepreneurship agenda in Africa. Through the Motsepe Foundation, she is a partner to the Milken Institute where she supports global innovators and entrepreneurs who are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals. To date, the Milken-Motsepe Prize has identified and invested in innovation relating to agriculture and green energy.

With her husband, she is also the co-creator of the Motsepe Presidential Research Accelerator Fund at the Harvard University Center for African Studies, which supports faculty-led and student-driven research projects that focus on advancing key challenges and opportunities facing Africa.

Dr Moloi-Motsepe currently serves on the Harvard University Global Advisory Council, and Advisory Board for the Milken Institute’s Center for Strategic Philanthropy.

H.R.H. Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud
H.R.H. Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud
Founder and CEO, KBW Ventures

With holdings on three continents, Prince Khaled stands at the gateway between the Middle East’s evolving economies and the Western world. He invests in an array of successful, but diverse global businesses with a focus on transformative solutions.

As a venture capitalist who advocates for and invests in green emerging technologies, Prince Khaled is extremely engaged with the biotechnology and food sciences sectors, promoting ventures that serve as solutions to climate, sustainability, and food security concerns facing today’s global community.

Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown
UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010 and is widely credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his stewardship of the 2009 London G20 summit. Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history.

Sen. Matteo Renzi
Sen. Matteo Renzi
Former Prime Minister of Italy

Matteo Renzi is an Italian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Italy from February 2014 until December 2016. Renzi served as President of the Province of Florence from 2004 to 2009 and as Mayor of Florence from 2009 to 2014.

Renzi is the youngest person to serve as Italian Prime Minister and was the youngest leader in the G7. He was also the first serving Mayor to become Prime Minister. In 2014, the American magazine Fortune ranked Renzi as the third most influential person under 40 in the world, and Foreign Policy listed him as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. Moreover, Renzi is nicknamed il Rottamatore (the Scrapper) due to his ambition of renovating the Italian political establishment. Renzi, who did not hold a seat in either house of Parliament during his tenure as Prime Minister, became a member of the Senate as a result of the 2018 general election. Following the 2018 election, Renzi announced his resignation as Secretary of the Democratic Party, effective 12 March 2018.

Rt. Hon. David Cameron
Rt. Hon. David Cameron
Rt. Hon. David Cameron, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Anthony Geffen
Anthony Geffen
CEO and Creative Director, Atlantic Productions

Anthony Geffen is one of the world’s leading documentary film makers and a pioneer in multi-platform storytelling. He has won four British Academy awards (BAFTAs) and eight American Emmy Awards. He followed Ang Lee and James Cameron to be presented in Hollywood with the Charles Wheatstone Award for his outstanding contribution to film and television. His diverse films include eleven projects with Sir David Attenborough including the BBC series The Great Barrier Reef, the theatrical film The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest and the recently acclaimed The Coronation with The Queen. He is considered by the media as a visionary for storytelling across different digital multi-platforms in 3D, interactive apps, and now immersive VR, AR and AI experiences. These include Space Decent, The Munduruku, First Life and Health VR. In 2007 he received the first British Academy Award for VR storytelling. Anthony is a fellow at St. Cross College, Oxford University.

H.E. Noura Al Kaabi
H.E. Noura Al Kaabi
UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development

Her Excellency Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi was appointed as the UAE Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development in October 2017. As Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, Her Excellency is responsible for the promotion of all UAE cultural fields on both a national and international level. She previously held the post of Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs. Her Excellency also holds the position of Chairwoman of the Media Zone Authority – Abu Dhabi (MZA) and twofour54, the home of media and entertainment in Abu Dhabi. She is Chair of Abu Dhabi Media Company and Chair of Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC Group). In 2014, she was named as one of Forbes Middle East’s 30 Most Influential Women in Government; and was awarded ‘Business Woman of the Year’ at the Gulf Business Industry Awards.

President Bill Clinton
President Bill Clinton
42nd President of the United States and Board Chair, Clinton Foundation

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in an automobile accident. In high school, he took the name of his step father, Roger Clinton of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Bill Clinton graduated from Georgetown University in 1968 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He received a law degree from Yale in 1973. After graduation, he returned to Arkansas and taught law at the University of Arkansas before entering politics. His 1974 campaign for Congress ended in defeat, but two years later he was elected Arkansas Attorney General.

In 1975, Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham, whom he had met while a law student at Yale. Chelsea, their only child, was born in 1980.

Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, but lost a bid for reelection in 1980. He regained the governorship two years later and served until 1993. During his 12 years in office, Governor Clinton earned national recognition for his progressive programs, especially his efforts to improve the quality of public education.

After a tough primary campaign, Bill Clinton won his party’s nomination and went on to defeat Republican President George H. W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race. When President Clinton won reelection in 1996, he became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term.

Following the early failure of his health care reform initiative, President Clinton pursued a moderate but progressive domestic agenda. During his tenure, the welfare system was reformed, the sale of guns was restricted, environmental regulations were strengthened, and a massive federal budget deficit was turned into a surplus.

On the international scene, the Clinton Administration expanded international trade, intervened to end “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, launched peace and trade initiatives in Africa and the Middle East, and promoted a framework for peace aimed at ending the strife in Northern Ireland.

In 1998, his relationship with a White House intern resulted in the President’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. A trial in the Senate found the President not guilty of the charges brought against him. President Clinton apologized for his conduct and vowed to keep working as hard as he could for the American people. As a result, Bill Clinton left office with historically high approval ratings for the job he had done as the 42nd President of the United States.

In the years since leaving office, President Clinton has dedicated his time to leading the development of global initiatives through his Foundation. The staff and volunteers of the William J. Clinton Foundation focus on programs of community service, drug acquisition for HIV/AIDS treatment, and fighting childhood obesity in the United States. The Clinton Global Initiative garners the expertise of leaders from around the world in addressing global issues of health care, education, clean energy and environment, job training, and entrepreneurship in under-developed countries.

President Clinton has worked alongside former Presidents George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, in disaster relief efforts for the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in the United States, and the earthquake in Haiti.

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Sen. Matteo Renzi, Italian politican and former Prime Minister of Italy, discussed the reformist approach as a reaction to populism, and proposed education as the best method of combatting it.

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