By STEVEN HERBERT

Former first lady Jill Biden, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are among Monday’s scheduled participants as the Milken Institute’s 28th annual Global Conference begins in earnest in Beverly Hills.

All public sessions at the conference will be streamed live.

Biden will be interviewed from 8 to 8:30 a.m. by Esther Krofah, executive vice president, Milken Institute Health, as part of a session titled “Catalyzing the Next Era of Health.”

Biden is the chair of the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network, described by the institute as “a global collaborative to collate, elevate and advance existing and new efforts across the women’s health ecosystem.” Its formation was announced on Tuesday, April 29.

Blair will participate in a “wide-ranging discussion” with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist Nicholas Kristof “to discuss the defining global challenges of our time,” from 11:30-11:55 a.m., according to conference organizers.

Bessent will be interviewed on the state of the global economy from 8 to 8:30 a.m. by Michael Milken, the one-time junk bond king who is chairman of the Milken Institute.

Monday’s other sessions include:

— An interview of Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former talk show host and unsuccessful Pennsylvania Senate candidate who is now administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Oz will be interviewed from 10 to 10:20 a.m. by Krofah as part of a session on “Shifting the Paradigm for Health Care.”

— Former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko will be among the participants in a discussion from 10 to 11 a.m. on investing in Ukraine’s future.

— Paraguayan President Santiago Peña will be interviewed from 9 to 9:30 a.m. during a session titled “Powering the Future” by Daniel Yergin, the vice chairman of the financial information and analytics firm S&P Global, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and graduate of nearby Beverly Hills High School.

— An interview of Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, from 10 to 10:20 a.m. by Gerard Baker, The Wall Street Journal’s editor-at-large.

The theme of the conference is “Toward a Flourishing Future.”

“This conference is where the world comes to connect ideas with capital, science with policy, and vision with action,” Milken Institute CEO Richard Ditizio said in a statement.

“In a time of division and disruption, the Global Conference is a unique space for people who are ready to take nuanced learnings from our dialogues and lead.”

The conference at The Beverly Hilton is expected to draw about 5,000 attendees from 80 nations. It began Sunday with 14 invitation-only sessions and three welcoming events and will run through Wednesday.

The conference’s 170 public sessions will be streamed at www.globalconference.org. The livestream schedule is available at milkeninstitute.org/events/global-conference-2025/livestream

The Milken Institute bills itself as a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life, with a focus on financial, physical, mental and environmental health.