Ian Davis, an architect, is a Visiting Professor in Disaster Risk Management in Copenhagen, Kyoto, Lund and Oxford Brookes Universities. He works in Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery. In 1996 he received the UN Sasakawa Award for his contribution to Disaster Prevention. He has been on the board of four NGO’s, advised Governments/ UN Agencies and is author or editor of 17 books. Kae Yanagisawa is Vice President of Japan International Cooperation Agency. She has a long-term career in international development at JICA and UNDP. She gained knowledge and experience in disaster risk reduction while she was leading the disaster relief operations of JICA. She is a Visiting Professor in development cooperation at Meiji University. Kristalina Georgieva is Vice President of the European Commission. From 2010 to 2014, she was the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response.　Before joining the European Commission, she held various positions at the World Bank including Director for Sustainable Development and Vice President and Corporate Secretary. In October 2014, she was recognized as a Champion of Disaster Risk Reduction by the secretariat of International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. .