Chad O’Carroll is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Korea Risk Group. He is a respected journalist and researcher with a specialization in North Korea. In addition to his responsibilities as Chief Executive of Korea Risk Group, O’Carroll is the Managing Director of the company’s institutional research and analysis platform, NK Pro.

Vice President and Secretary-General of The Council on Diplomacy for Korean Unification (CDKU), a not-for-profit organization he founded in September 2021 along with other retired senior members of the South Korean Ministry of Unifcation and think tanks.

J.R. Kim is also a director general without portfolio of the Ministry of Unification, currently on sabbatical leave from the ministry.

Joined the Ministry in 1996, Mr. Kim has served as the director of various divisions, including international cooperation, public relations, and inter-Korean dialogue. His last assignment was a senior director of planning and research in the North Korean Human Right Record Center.

He has also published a book on Northern Ireland peace process in 2015, the first book written in Korean dealing with the ongoing Irish process and its implications on the Korean unification.

Mr. Kim has a BS in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a MIA in international political economy from Columbia University in New York, and is a Ph. D. candidate in international relations in the University of Cambridge.

Jacco Zwetsloot has lived in Korea for 20 of the last 25 years, with a broad range of work experience in the communication, legal, tourism, training and broadcasting sectors. He has worked as an English teacher, a tour guide for the US military, a regular radio show guest, and a translator of North Korean propaganda. Currently, Jacco works as a content creator for a communications consultancy Insight Communications Consultants, hosts a weekly podcast about North Korea, moderates panel discussions, writes a monthly Korean newspaper column and still leads occasional lunchtime walking tours in downtown Seoul for the Royal Asiatic Society Business & Culture Club. Jacco holds a Master of Arts degree in Korean Studies from Leiden University, a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from Monash University and a separate Bachelor of Arts in Modern European Studies and German Language from the University of Melbourne.

Andrijana Cvetkovikj has a Doctoral Degree from Nihon University, and an Executive MBA from the Fox School of Business, Temple University, and a Master Degree in Cinema and Media Studies from the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts of Sofia, Bulgaria. She is recipient of the the WIN Inspiring Women Worldwide Award 2022. Cvetkovikj was the first resident Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia in Japan from 2014-2018. Cvetkovikj was also the Head of the Digital Diplomacy Unit (2013-2014)and the Public Diplomacy Unit (2018) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia. She sits on the Board of Del Sole Corporation, and used to be an Executive Advisory Board Member of Cartier-Japan (2018-2020), promoting women’s entrepreneurship and mentoring. Cvetkovikj was a visiting professor at Kyoto University (2012), the International Center for Japanese Studies(2010-2011), the European University and other academic institutes. She is currently an Advisor to the OIST Foundation (the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology).

Cvetkovikj is the Founder & CEO of BrioNexus, Co., Ltd., Tokyo based consultancy firm, and of a non-profit organization Ambassadors of Change. She is a member of the Japan Board Diversity Network (JBDN), and the Worldwide Women Corporate Directors (WCD) Organization. She has been a speaker at the UN Conference for Climate Change, the World Economic Forum, and other venues. In 2018 she received the distinguished award Doctor Honoris Causa by the European University for contributions in the Sciences and Arts.