Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent over five decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and presidential candidate. As 67th U.S. Secretary of State, her "smart power" approach to foreign policy repositioned American diplomacy and development for the 21st century. Clinton played a central role in restoring America’s standing in the world, reasserting the United States as a Pacific power, imposing crippling sanctions on Iran and North Korea, responding to the Arab Awakening, and negotiating a ceasefire in the Middle East. Earlier, as First Lady and Senator for New York, she traveled to more than 80 countries as a champion of human rights, democracy, and opportunities for women and girls. She also worked to provide health care to millions of children, create jobs and opportunity, and support first responders who risked their lives at Ground Zero. In her historic 2016 campaign for President of the United States, Clinton won 66 million votes. She is the author of ten best-selling books; host of the podcast You and Me Both; founder of the global production studio HiddenLight Productions; Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast; and a Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs and Presidential Fellow at Columbia World Projects at Columbia University.  She is married to former U.S. President Bill Clinton, has one daughter Chelsea, and three grandchildren: Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper.

Julia Friedlander joined Atlantik-Brücke, Germany's top platform for transatlantic exchange and professional network, as chief executive officer in June 2022. Before coming to Berlin, she spent two years at the Atlantic Council as the founding director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative, which handles the intersection between finance, economics and national security. She spent a decade in the U.S. government. She was senior policy advisor for Europe in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury from 2015 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2020, focusing on global sanctions policy and financial regulation, and as a macroeconomist in the Department of International Affairs. From April 2017 to July 2019, she was detailed to the White House as the director for the European Union, Southern Europe, and Economic Affairs at the National Security Council, where she coordinated U.S. executive branch policy on transatlantic relations and the European Union and staffing the national security advisor. Before joining the Treasury in 2015, she held multiple analytical positions within the Central Intelligence Agency, focusing on global economic stability and energy security. 

Ms. Friedlander holds a BA in European history from Princeton University and an MA in international economics and international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Before graduate school, she spent two years in Berlin with a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the German Council on Foreign Relations and The German Marshall Fund of the United States.