Yalda Hakim – Keynote Speaker

Yalda Hakim is an award-winning foreign correspondent and documentary filmmaker. She currently anchors the flagship program ‘Impact with Yalda Hakim’ on BBC World News. In addition to her presenting duties, Yalda regularly reports in the field for the BBC. Her most recent film, “TK,” profiled Afghanistan on the eve of the Taliban takeover.

Earlier this year, Yalda conducted the first international interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Her other high profile interviews with global leaders and public figures have included then-National Security Advisor HR McMaster, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, Iran’s then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani, Hollywood actor and director Angelina Jolie, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, and then-UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura, to name a few. Yalda often moderates and chairs high profile events including the Nobel Peace Prize Summit, World Economic Forum, Halifax International Security Forum and the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi.

Yalda Hakim has reported extensively from some of the world’s most dangerous and difficult places. She traveled to Iraq and Syria to cover the rise and fall of the so called Islamic State. She has worked in the world’s youngest nation, South Sudan, documenting the brutal civil war there. She has also highlighted the plight of people in the secretive state of Eritrea, covered the US presidential elections in 2008, 2012 and 2020, reported from Turkey following the failed coup attempt, covered the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal, kidnappings by drug cartel’s in Mexico and jihadism in Sweden. She has investigated and reported on people-trafficking and torture of Ethiopian migrants in Yemen and following the Bangladesh garment factory collapse uncovered workers still being put at risk in unsafe premises.

Before joining BBC World News, Yalda was the presenter of SBS Dateline in Australia.

In 2018, Yalda launched the “Yalda Hakim Foundation,” which supports the professional advancement of exceptionally talented Afghans and this year successfully organized the evacuation of over 200 at-risk Afghans, including some of the country’s most prominent journalists and American University of Afghanistan students.

Yalda was born in Afghanistan and fled with her family as a result of the Soviet invasion, emigrating to Australia.