DAVOS DAILY | DAY 1 | Greta Thunberg, Donald J. Trump and the Start of Davos

Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg FRSGS (Swedish; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change. Thunberg is known for her youth and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticizes world leaders for their failure to take sufficient action to address the climate crisis.Thunberg's activism started after convincing her parents to adopt several lifestyle choices to reduce their own carbon footprint. In August 2018, at age 15, she started spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament to call for stronger action on climate change by holding up a sign reading Skolstrejk för klimatet (School strike for climate). Soon, other students engaged in similar protests in their own communities. Together, they organised a school climate strike movement under the name Fridays for Future. After Thunberg addressed the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, student strikes took place every week somewhere in the world. In 2019, there were multiple coordinated multi-city protests involving over a million students each. To avoid flying, Thunberg sailed to North America where she attended the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit.

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.Trump was born and raised in Queens, a borough of New York City, and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School. He took charge of his family's real-estate business in 1971, renamed it The Trump Organization, and expanded its operations from Queens and Brooklyn into Manhattan. The company built or renovated skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. He produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality television series, from 2003 to 2015. As of 2019, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $3.1 billion.Trump entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and defeated 16 other candidates in the primaries. His political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, and nationalist. Despite not being favored in most forecasts, he was elected over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, although he lost the popular vote. He became the oldest first-term U.S. president, and the first without prior military or government service. His election and policies have sparked numerous protests. Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency.

Han Zheng (Chinese: pinyin: Hán Zhèng; born April 1954) is a Chinese politician serving as Vice Premier of the State Council and Politburo Standing Committee member of the Communist Party of China. He served as Mayor of Shanghai between 2003 and 2012. In November 2012, he was promoted to become the Party Secretary of Shanghai, the top political post in the city, and also gained a seat on the Politburo.Han was once considered a member of the Shanghai clique, headed by former Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin.

Gita Gopinath is the Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund.She is the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University. She is also a co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has worked as the Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala.Gita was appointed as chief economist of the International Monetary Fund in October 2018.

Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva-Kinova (Bulgarian; born 13 August 1953) is a Bulgarian economist serving as Chairwoman and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019. She was the Chief Executive of the World Bank Group from 2017 to 2019 and served as Acting President of the World Bank Group from 1 February 2019 to 8 April 2019 following the resignation of Jim Yong Kim. She previously served as Vice-President of the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014 to 2016

Australian artist whose immersive video installations and film works reflect on the connections between people and the natural world and explore the nature of resilience. Has shown works at World Economic Forum in Davos and China events, including CORAL, the Ocean Dome, the interactive installation Evolution of Fearlessness, the virtual reality (VR) film Collisions, which the Forum premiered and Executive Produced. 2017, Collisions won an Emmy for Outstanding New Approaches to documentary. 2018, premiered Awavena, the story of the first woman Shaman from the Yawanawa tribe in Brazil at the Sundance film festival and World Economic Forum in Davos. Story teller/artist who experiments with the latest technologies to deliver powerful true stories with the most cutting-edge tools. Awarded a UNESCO City of Film award, the Byron Kennedy Award for Innovation and Excellence from the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) and was named as one of the “100 Leading Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine for immersing audiences in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Currently working on the third work in current series using VR and augmented reality to facilitate story telling from remote indigenous peoples who have messages they wish to impart.