Ailikun

Director

International Programme Office of Third Pole Environment

Prof. Ailikun is the director of International Programme Office (IPO) of Third Pole Environment (TPE), located in the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). She has worked on Asian monsoon climatology, climate change and regional sustainability research in monsoon Asia. She served for the International Project Office of Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) from 2006 to 2015, dedicating herself in international collaboration on global change integrated studies in Asia and Pacific region. From mid-2016, Dr. Ailikun moved to the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), CAS as the director of TPE IPO. Dr. Ailikun is fluent in English and Japanese, interested in understanding the relationship between science and humanity, and crosscutting studies between natural and social sciences.

Astrid Ogilvie

Senior Affiliate Scientist, Fellow

Stefansson Arctic Institute, INSTAAR at the University of Colorado

Astrid Ogilvie is a climate historian and human ecologist. Her overarching career goal is to bbuild bridges between the arts, humanities, and the natural sciences, in order to foster interdisciplinary cross-fertilization. Her current research interests focus primarily on climatic and socio-economic changes in Arctic coastal communities and she co-leads the Nordic Centre of Excellence project Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH). She is the author of some 100 scientific papers and two edited books. She is a Senior Affiliate Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute and a Fellow of INSTAAR at the University of Colorado.

Baldur Þórhallsson

Professor, Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies and Programme & Research Director at the Centre for Small States

University of Iceland

Baldur Thorhallsson is Professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He is also the Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies and Programme and Research Director at the Centre for Small States at the University. He has published extensively on small states, European integration and Iceland’s foreign policy. In 2002, Baldur established the Centre for Small State Studies in association with colleagues from around the globe and re-established the Icelandic Institute of International Affairs. Baldur is currently leading a number of research projects on small states. A book titled Small States and Shelter Theory: Iceland’s External Affairs will be published by Routledge in the autumn.

Peter Garapick

Superintendent

Search & Rescue/Environmental Response – Arctic

Peter Garapick has been with the Canadian Coast for over 28 years and has enjoyed a broad range of roles during this period. Before becoming a full-time employee of the CCG he led an Inshore Recue Boat Station as a summer student for 4 years. He has held positions across the program services that CCG provides its maritime clients – Contingency Planning Officer in Environmental Response, Training Officer in SAR, manager of the regional Office of Boating Safety (where 1999 he was part of the team that brought in Canada’s national boater education regulations requiring boaters to have a Pleasure Craft Operator Card), Special Projects Manager with a focus on Aids to Navigation, manager of regional Marine Communications and Traffic Services program and Superintendent of Search and Rescue for the Central and Arctic Region. As of 2016 Peter’s focus is solely on the Arctic with the objectives of expanding SAR capacity on a local community level with the CCG volunteer Auxiliary across the North. He has also been responsible for establishing the first CCG Inshore Rescue Boat Station in the Arctic, in the community of Rankin Inlet which became operational in June 2018. Peter also represents the CCG on the Arctic Coast Guard Forum and works closely with the Arctic cruise and expedition community through liaison with AECO (Arctic Expedition and Cruise Operators), Transport Canada and other government departments to ensure emergency plans are realistic and effective.

Sarah Cox

Head of Delegation for SDWG, Arctic Council; Director

Circumpolar Affairs at Department of Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Sarah Cox has been with the Canadian government for 19 years. While she has spent the bulk of her career at Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, she has also had experience at several other federal departments. Her areas of work have included Education, Inuit Relations and Intergovernmental Affairs, to name a few. She is currently the Director of Circumpolar Affairs and the Canadian Head of Delegation for the Sustainable Development Working Group in the Arctic Council and counts herself privileged to have the opportunity to work on issues that support Northerners across the circumpolar North.

Níels Einarsson

Director

Stefansson Arctic Institute; ArcPath – Nordic Centre of Excellence in Arctic Research on Climate

Dr. Einarsson is an anthropologist and Director of the Stefansson Arctic Institute in Akureyri, Iceland. His main professional interests include the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of marine resource governance; climate change, whale watching and whaling in Iceland, and North Atlantic Arctic sustainability and social change issues. He has led and participated in numerous international research and scientific assessment projects with a focus on the circumpolar region, including co-editing the first Arctic Human Development Report. He is a Co-PI on the Nordic Centre of Excellence project Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH, http://www.svs.is/en/projects/arcpath) with a primary focus on investigating environmental and social change in Arctic coastal communities.

Kuno Fencker

Chairman of the Board

Royal Arctic Line, Greenland

An experienced businessman from the sectors: logistics, shipping, oil & gas and ICT, in Greenland. Education in Business Administration from Greenland Business School and Alborg University.

Jay Friedlander

Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green & Socially Responsible Business

College of the Atlantic

Jay Friedlander is the Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. The College is a recognized sustainability leader and Jay’s work has been featured in The New York Times, MITSloan Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and other outlets. Jay’s research merges the UN SDGs, entrepreneurship and strategy. To that end he created the Abundance Cycle, a model to reimagine and develop enterprises so they maximize economic, social and environmental returns. Jay also serves as a Babson College Senior Fellow in Social Innovation and lectures globally on sustainable innovation.

Lizanne Henderson

Senior Lecturer

School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow

Lizanne Henderson (Senior Lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow) is a cultural historian who works primarily on folk belief and supernatural belief traditions, Scottish emigration and exploration, environmental humanities and human-animal studies. Her most recent book, Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment: Scotland, 1670-1740 was winner of the Katharine Briggs Book Award 2016. She is currently working on a multi-disciplinary project called Picturing Polar Bears.

Stanislav Ksenofontov

Fellow

International Arctic Science Committee

Stanislav Ksenofontov is a native Sakha and Evenk from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), NE Siberia, Russia. He is trained as a linguist in Chinese and English at the Far Eastern State University for the Humanities in Khabarovsk, Russia. Stanislav earned his Ph.D. in Human Geography from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His thesis addresses the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the Arctic social-ecological systems to global change. Particularly his thesis assesses indigenous knowledge of the effects of climate change as well as socio-political transformations to biodiversity and indigenous livelihoods of Arctic Yakutia, NE Siberia, Russia. Stanislav is the 2018 IASC Fellowship holder for the Social and Human Working Group.

Mafalda Miranda

PhD student

Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), Québec City

Mafalda Miranda is a PhD student at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Québec City, Canada. Her project is entitled “Assessment of the deep geothermal energy potential in a remote community of northern Québec: the case study of Kuujjuaq, Canada”. This research project intends to study the technical and economic feasibility of using deep geothermal resources to provide heating power for the remote communities of northern Québec. She has a bachelor’s degree in Geology and a master’s degree in Geosciences from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Maria Ackrén

Associate Professor

Political Science at Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland

Dr. Maria Ackrén is Associate Professor in Political Science at Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland since 2011. She is originally from the Åland Islands in Finland and earned her Ph.D. at Åbo Akademi University in Finland back in 2009. Her research interests include various autonomy regimes in the world, nationalism, island studies, comparative methodology, Arctic relations and regional parties (especially in a Nordic context). She has contributed in several research anthologies and published several peer review articles in various journals.

Alejandro Adem

CEO & Scientific Director

Mitacs

• Professor Adem has been the CEO & Scientific Director of Mitacs since 2015. He is also Professor of Mathematics & Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia.
• He obtained his PhD from Princeton University and held positions at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison before moving to UBC.
• Professor Adem previously served as Director of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (2008-2015). He is a highly regarded researcher and has received many distinctions.  He serves on several scientific, editorial and governance boards for the worldwide mathematical sciences community.

Austin Ahmasuk

Marine Advocate

Kawerak, Inc.

Austin Ahmasuk is kingikmiu inupiaq and is the Marine Advocate for Kawerak in Nome, Alaska. He has worked as a tribal, subsistence, and environmental advocate in the Bering Strait region since 1997. Mr. Ahmasuk loves his people and looks forward to the best future for the Arctic. Mr. Ahmasuk enjoys working for and with the tribes in the Bering Strait region. The Marine Program has contributed to advocacy at the statewide, national and international level to advocate for local communities.

Songtao Ai

Associate Professor

Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University

Dr Ai has participated over ten times in the Chinese National Arctic/Antarctic Research Expeditions since 2002. Now he is an associate professor in Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University. He has a passion for all bipolar things, including polar spatial information infrastructure, glacier motion monitoring and global change study. He has been the sectary general of Hubei Arctic and Antarctic Association since 2011. He is also the Chinese representatives for many international organizations, such as the NAGLAMB project: Ny-Ålesund GLAcier Mass Balance workshop since 2015.

Jean-Christophe Allo

Business development manager

SABELLA

With a degree in engineering -  management and energy projects - and a post- master degree in ocean energy, Jean-Christophe is involved in tidal energy since 2010. He joined SABELLA in 2012 to manage the D10 project and increase the notoriety of the company both in France and abroad. He then moved to business development, strategy and public relation. Today, Jean- Christophe is the head of business development for SABELLA, promoting tidal energy solutions worldwide. He is, in parallel, involved in the long-term strategy of the company and represents SABELLA in several organization, such as OEE, AMET and SER.

Jiachun An

Assistan Professor

Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University

Dr. An received the Ph.D. degree in geodesy and surveying engineering from Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, in 2011 and used to be a visiting scholar for post-doctoral research in Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. He is currently a lecturer at the Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan University. His research interests include precise satellite navigation, ionospheric and atmospheric sounding, and global navigation satellite system reflectometry over polar region. He has been to Svalbard three times and Antarctica two times for field work.

Niels Andersen

DTU Space Executive Board, Business & Public Authorities– Technical University of Denmark (DTU); Chair

International IHO/IAG Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS)

Holding a master in Physics and PhD in geodesy NA has a long career in research and management and is presently a member of the Executive Board and head of the Business and Public Sector section at DTU Space. NA is affiliated to a range of research-based associations such as chair of the IHO/IAG Advisory Board on the Law of the Sea (ABLOS), member of the Danish UNCLOS Delegations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and member of the task force for the Danish National Continental Shelf Project regarding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Nils Andreassen

Executive Director, Institute of the North; Project Leader

Arctic Renewable Energy Atlas (AREA) Project

Andreassen has a degree in Peace and Development from the University of Bradford in England and his background in rural and international development, Alaska and Arctic policy issues fit well within the Institute’s mission to inform public policy as it relates to natural resource development, and specifically to result in improved living and economic conditions for northern residents. The Institute has a legacy working on Arctic infrastructure priorities and policies that serve to strengthen and connect northern communities.

Natalia Andreassen

High North Center, Nord University Business School

Natalia Andreassen holds her PhD from Nord University. She is conducting research within the field of emergency management with special focus on maritime emergency preparedness and response, issues of organization, coordination and risk assessments, and within the field of sustainability and energy efficiency. Dr. Andreassen is currently involved in the MARPART projects, international research and development consortium on maritime safety and security in the High North.

Edda Sif Pind Aradóttir

Project manager CarbFix; & Head of Innovation and Strategic Planning

Reykjavík Energy´s Department of R&D

Dr. Edda Sif Pind Aradóttir is the Head of Innovation and Strategic Planning at Department of R&D at Reykjavík Energy. She is furthermore the Project Manager of the international CarbFix research project that has developed innovative and environmentally benign methods for capturing and permanently turning CO2 to rock within the subsurface. Edda has over 15 years’ experience in management and research related to CCS, renewable energy and reservoir engineering.

Magni Arge

Former CEO of Atlantic Airways; Member

Danish Parliament

Magni Arge is a member of the Faroese and Danish parliaments and former CEO of the Faroese airline Atlantic Airways. Mr. Arge has also held several key board positions in the Faroese corporate sector, most notably as Chairman of the Faroe Oil Industry Association for more than 20 years. Mr. Arge has a combined degree in Politics, Journalism and Nordic languages. It is through his engagement as CEO of Atlantic Airways and Board Member of Green Gate Incoming and the Danish Airline Association that Mr. Arge has contributed to the shape and development of the Faroese and Scandinavian aviation industry.

Javier L. Arnaut

Assistant Professor of Economics

University of Greenland

Javier L. Arnaut is an economist specialized in development economics and quantitative economic history. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He works at the University of Greenland as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business. His research interests include empirical economics, political economy, and economic growth of emerging regions. Currently, he is engaged in research projects related to Greenland and the Arctic’s economic development from a long-run historical perspective.

Patrick Arnold

Co-Founder & CEO

New England Ocean Cluster

Mr. Arnold is the Co-Founder & CEO of the New England Ocean Cluster. He has more than 15 years of experience in maritime logistics consulting, operational management, and business development support for ports throughout North America. In addition, Patrick has overseen operations at the International Marine Terminal since 2009. Starting with Eimskip’s arrival to Portland, Patrick has worked to enhance international trade connections to foster economic development with a focus on the North Atlantic and Arctic regions.

Elizabeth Arnold

Former U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent; Producer, Arctic Profiles; & Associate Professor

University of Alaska

Elizabeth Arnold is a former U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) correspondent, an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Alaska, and Producer of Arctic Profiles. Over the last decade she has reported on the ecological and human impacts of global warming. As a Spring, 2018 Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Arnold researched a new paper: “Gloom and Doom: The Role of the Media in Public Disengagement on Climate Change.” In her 20 years at NPR, Arnold covered Congress, the White House, and the American West. She has received numerous awards, including a duPont Columbia Silver Baton and the Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress.

Sarah Auffret

Environmental Agent

AECO

Sarah works as environmental agent for the association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO), an international association for expedition cruise operators and others who support its vision of responsible, environmentally friendly and safe tourism in the Arctic. Sarah leads AECO’s Clean Seas Project which is supported by the UN Environment Program. By reducing single-use plastic consumption, facilitating first-hand experiences of the extent of the marine litter problem in the Arctic and educating on its consequences, AECO is keen to demonstrate how industries can be driving forces in the fight against marine litter. Our set of best practices strive to be applicable to other industries as well as individuals so our work will benefit a wider audience.

Mike Aumond

Cabinet Secretary and Vice Chair

Northwest Territories Power Corporation, NWT, Canada

Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, Mike has been employed by the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) for 30 years, including 13 as Deputy Minister. Mike has worked in the areas of contract and procurement policy development, land claim negotiations, community fuel services and human resource management. From 1997 until 1999, Mike was employed as the Executive Director, Western Coalition, at the NWT Legislative Assembly where he worked with Members of the Legislative Assembly, Aboriginal governments, NWT Chamber of Commerce, and NWT Association of Municipalities to successfully implement Division of the NWT that took place in 1999. Mike also worked for one year as the Executive Assistant to a GNWT Minister. In July 2001, Mike accepted the position of Director, Petroleum Products Division, and worked there until November 2005 when he assumed the position of Deputy Minister, Public Works and Services. In June 2008, Mike was appointed lead Deputy Minister for GNWT Infrastructure. On August 28, 2009, Mike was appointed as the Deputy Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs after which (2011), Mike was appointed to Deputy Minister of Finance and Secretary of the Financial Management Board followed by (2016), assuming the position of Deputy Minister, Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs and Secretary to Cabinet.

Jóhanna á Bergi

CEO

Atlantic Airways

Jóhanna á Bergi, born 1970, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the national flag carrier of Faroe Islands,
Atlantic Airways and is the first woman to become CEO of a Nordic airline.
Mrs. á Bergi has extensive experience in management positions, as Sales Manager for Faroe Seafood France as
well as Sales and Marketing Director for JFK Seafood before taking on the role of CEO of the large shipping and
logistic company, Faroe Ship owned by Icelandic Eimskip (2006-2015).

Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir

Senior Lecturer in British Literature

University of Iceland

Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir is Senior Lecturer in British Literature at the University of Iceland. Her main research interests are in the field of historical fiction and contemporary Scottish literature. She has published articles and book chapters on historical novels and films, portrayals of Mary Queen of Scots in historical fiction, and the novels of Robin Jenkins. Her current research focuses on fictional representations of Scotland and its history, especially concerning the role of landscape, nature and environment in rewriting and reinterpreting important historical events. Ingibjörg is currently engaged in setting up a new interdisciplinary Research Network on Scotland and the North, in collaboration with Dr Monica Germanà.

Vilhjálmur jens Árnason

Project Manager

Iceland Ocean Cluster

Vilhjálmur jens Árnason is Project Manager for the Iceland Ocean Cluster, as well as an independent advisor for numerous organizations and institutions. He is a teacher at the University of Iceland teaching business ethics. Mr. Árnason has worked on various projects mostly related to mapping different industry sectors and finding new opportunities. He has also worked on projects associated with green marine technology, the fishing ship of tomorrow, the first Icelandic hybrid fishing vessel and opportunities associated with utilising underutilised fish species. He is the author of two big reports for the Iceland Ocean Cluster; the first one focusing on ocean related industries in Iceland and the other on ocean related industry clusters in the North Atlantic region. Mr. Árnason has also worked on projects associated with mapping the export marketing programmes, the attitude towards governmental support and patenting and feasibility of further cooperation between IT companies and companies within the clean tech sector in Iceland

Ane Lone Bagger

Minister

Ministry of Education, Culture, Church and Foreign Affairs, Government of Greenland

Before Minister Ane Lone Bagger took on the task of becoming the Minister of Education, Culture, Church and Foreign Affairs in Greenland, she was involved in local politics being the first Vice Mayor in Avannaata Municipality for the political party Siumut. Prior to that she has worked for 15 years in Air Greenland in various roles – including as the first female Greenlandic flight mechanic. This industry taught her precision and thoroughness while being dedicated to bring the travelers to their destinations safely. Minister Bagger has also worked several years within the insurance sector.

Alexandre Baillargeon

Director

Société du Plan Nord

Alexandre Baillargeon has held different positions within the Québec public service, which he joined in 2008. He was appointed as Director of Interdepartmental Relations of the Société du Plan Nord on October 1, 2017, after acting, since March 2014, as strategic counsellor for the organisation. Mr. Baillargeon was part of the team who worked on writing the Plan Nord for the Québec government. His career as has been influenced by the importance of long term planning and regional development. Alexandre Baillargeon holds a Master's degree in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from Université Laval in Québec

Brage Baklien

State Secretary

Ministry of Transport and Communications, Norway

Brage Baklien is an economist from the Norwegian School of Management. He worked in the private sector between 2001 and 2005, mostly within finance and management consultancy. In 2005 he worked at a project at UNECE - United Nations Economic Commission for Europe before he was employed as political adviser for the Progress party at Stortinget the same year. From 2016 he served as state secretary in the Ministry of Finance before he was appointed as state secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications in 2018. Baklien is also a former rower, and participated in the 1996 rowing world championships in Glasgow. Mr. Baklien represent the Progress Party.

Tom Barry

Executive Secretary

Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF)

Tom Barry is the Executive Secretary for the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council, based in Akureyri, Iceland. Tom has a broad range of experience at national and international levels dealing with strategic planning and organizational development. Tom works with a diverse range of stakeholders from across the Arctic to ensure that biodiversity conservation remains a priority for audiences working in Arctic policy and in multilateral global environmental agreement settings. A geographer by education, Tom is currently conducting a PhD that explores the cross section of Arctic science and policy at the University of Iceland.

Mike Batty

Director

Fisheries Development, Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA)

The Pacific Islands Forum leaders established the Fisheries Agency (FFA) in 1979 to strengthen national capacity and regional solidarity so its 17 members can manage, control and develop their tuna fisheries now and in the future. 

Mike took up the role of Director of Fisheries Development five years ago. He’s served in two other regional posts in fisheries: as the former Director of the Fisheries Programmes (FAME) at SPC; and as team leader of the EU funded DevFish 1 Project.

Originally from Britain, Mike first came to work in the Pacific Islands in 1982 as Fisheries Adviser for the Government of Tuvalu and is a naturalised citizen of Tuvalu. He then worked with the Solomon Islands Fisheries Department for two four year contracts (with a break in-between for further studies). More recently, he managed the National Fisheries Authority of Papua New Guinea during the reform of the organization, and has undertaken short-term work in Tonga and Federated States of Micronesia. Outside the Pacific, Mike has also worked on fisheries projects in the South Atlantic and Red Sea and developed an aquaculture research facility in Namibia.

Darrell Beaulieu

President & CEO

Denendeh Investments Incorporated (DII)

Darrell Beaulieu was appointed President and CEO of Denendeh Investments Incorporated (DII) and group of companies in October 2005. DII holds investments on behalf of the NWT Dene First Nations in Oil and Gas, Mineral Exploration, Communications, Infrastructure Logistics, Power Generation and Supply, Remediation, Food and Supplies Distribution and Real Estate. He is also Founding Director, President and CEO of DEMCo Ltd., a mineral exploration company established in 2013; and iDene Ltd. a remediation and environmental solutions company established in early 2016. Darrell was honored by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada with their prestigious Skookum Jim Award.

Mia Bennett

Assistan Professor

Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages & Cultures (China Studies Programme), University of Hong Kong

Mia Bennett is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages & Cultures (China Studies Programme) at the University of Hong Kong and editor of the Cryopolitics blog. Through fieldwork and remote sensing, she researches the politics of infrastructure development in frontier spaces, namely the Arctic and areas included within China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Robert Bensin

Bering Straits Native Corporation, Alaska

Residing in Nome Alaska Robert Bensin works for a general contracting subsidiary of Bering Straits Native Corporation. In addition to managing the construction department it is the broad knowledge of the challenges faced in rural Alaska communities that has driven the commitment to dedicate an energy efficiency and renewable energy division to help educate, develop and implement projects that achieve a lower cost of living, reduction of our carbon foot print and promote a healthy living environment. Robert has expertise performing residential, commercial and institutional energy audits, developing and implementing high yield energy efficiency measures, renewable energy installations including solar PV, wind, solar thermal and off grid hybrid systems. Robert is currently managing the effort to bring sustainably locally grown produce to Nome and the surrounding region as part of a food sovereignty effort as the effects of climate change are bringing harder challenges to living in rural Alaska.

Ketill Berg

Managing Director

Festa - Icelandic Center for Corporate Social Responsibility

Ketill Berg has been the Managing Director of Festa - Icelandic Center for Corporate Social Responsibility since 2013. Fasta is a membership organization which supports its 100 Icelandic corporate members to implement sustainability strategies. Responsible Tourism is one of Festa´s sustainability programs which we coordinate with the Icelandic Tourism Cluster Initiative, other such programs include the Reykjavik Climate Action Pledge and Equal opportunity recognition. Ketill also teaches Business Ethics and Sustainability at Reykjavík University. Ketill is MA in Business Ethics from University of Saskatchewan in Canada and MBA from ESADE in Spain.

Paul Arthur Berkman

Director

Science Diplomacy Center, Tufts University

Prof. Paul Arthur Berkman is Professor of Practice in Science Diplomacy and Director of the Science Diplomacy Center at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He currently coordinates the Arctic Options and Pan-Arctic Options projects (involving support from national science agencies in the United States, Russian Federation, Norway, France, China and Canada from 2013-2020) and is director of a Carnegie Corporation project on US-Russia Relations. He was lead author of “The Arctic Science Agreement Propels Science Diplomacy,” as background for this panel dialogue. Trained as an oceanographer who wintered in Antarctica on a SCUBA expedtion, Paul has received awards around the world, most recently the Vernadsky Medal from the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in 2017.

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen

Professor of Northern Studies & Inaugural Barents Chair

Politics at University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway

Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen is Professor of Northern Studies and the inaugural Barents Chair in Politics at University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway. He is a Danish national, who grew up in Reykjavik and has a deep personal and professional commitment to the North Atlantic and Arctic. Rasmus studied in Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Geneva, Lausanne and Amsterdam. His PhD is from the University of Cambridge with a year at Sciences Po. Rasmus was postdoc at Harvard, United Nations University (Yokohama) and Aalborg University. His main research interest is transnational flows of knowledge, talent and resources between the West and East.

Nicole Biebow

Project Manager, EU-PolarNet; Head

International Cooperation Unit, Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)

Nicole Biebow received her PhD in Marine Geology at GEOMAR in Kiel. She has long-standing experience in the management of international projects and coordination of international consortia. Since 2010, she leads the International Cooperation Unit at the AWI. She is responsible for all international relations of the AWI and maintains an extensive network of contacts in the European and international science and policy communities. Nicole Biebow is the executive manager of EU-PolarNet and the coordinator of the EU project ARICE (Arctic Research ICEbreaker Consortium).

Eric Utraq Billingsley

Vice President, Operations

NANA Regional Corporation

Eric provides oversight of the Commercial Group of companies. These diverse group of companies provide support to the Alaska resource development, healthcare, education, and other commercial industries.  Eric joined NANA in 2008 and has worked in various capacities including Information Technology, Treasury, Project Management and Operations. He has led efforts to optimize performance through implementing process improvements and operating efficiencies within NANA.   Billingsley is a NANA shareholder and grew up in Anchorage, Alaska.

Libby Bischof

Professor

Department of History, University of Southern Maine

Libby Bischof specializes in American cultural history and the history of photography. The author of Maine Photography: A History, 1840-2015 (Roman and Littlefield, 2016) and Maine Moderns (Yale, 2011), she is currently engaged in a comparative study of early-Icelandic and early-Maine photography, especially as it relates to rural modernization and female photographers.  She currently directs the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education at the University of Southern Maine, home to over 400,000 maps dating back to the 1400s.

Halldór Björnsson

Head

Atmospheric Research Group - Icelandic Meteorological Office

Dr. Björnsson is head of the Atmospheric Research Group at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. His research has covered climate data analysis, climate variability and Arctic climate change, sea ice, ocean and atmospheric modelling as well as wind energy and volcanic clouds. Halldór has chaired two climate impact assessments for Iceland, and has extensive experience in research into climate change impacts in the Arctic.

Ivan Boltenkov

Deputy Governor

Nenets Autonomous District

In charge of the public executive authorities’ activities of the Nenets Autonomous District in the field of international and interregional cooperation, interaction with strategic investors, as well as the social and economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation

Stephen Borys

Director & CEO

Winnipeg Art Gallery

Stephen Borys is the Director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery where he is overseeing the building of Canada’s Inuit Art Centre. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Winnipeg, and has held curatorial posts at the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; Allen Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal. He holds an Executive MBA, a PhD from McGill University, a MA from University of Toronto, and a BA from University of Winnipeg. Dr. Borys has organized numerous exhibitions, written accompanying catalogues and articles, and lectured across North America. He is a past trustee of the Association of Art Museum Directors and the Canadian Museums Association, and past president of the Canadian Art Museum Directors Organization.

Stéphane Boudreau

Professor

Biology Department and Centre d’études nordiques at Université Laval

Stéphane Boudreau is a professor of the Biology Department and Centre d’études nordiques at Université Laval (Québec Canada) since 2006. He works mainly on the impacts of climate change on terrestrial sub-Arctic and Arctic ecosystem dynamics. More precisely, his research aims to identify the causes and consequences of shrub expansion using dendrochronological tools and aerial photos and satellite imagery.

Sævar Helgi Bragason

Science Communicator and TV host

Sævar Helgi Bragason is well known in Iceland as a regular host on TV and Radio, focusing on communicating science, astronomy and climate change in programs for adults as well as children. Sævar Helgi has won multiple awards for science communication, is a best selling author, lecturer, and astronomy educator in the University of Iceland science center and University Train educational program. Sævar is the host on Sagafilm´s 10 episodes climate change series that will be premiered on RUV (The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service) early 2019.

Martin Breum

Journalist/Author

Martin Breum is a journalist/author. His book Cold Rush about Greenland’s and Denmark’s Arctic engagement was published in June 2018. His latest book in Danish Hvis Grønland river sig løs (If Greenland Secedes) was published in April 2018. His first book about Danish-Greenlandic relations The Greenland Dilemma, won the Danish Authors Association’s 2014 Best Nonfiction Award. He covers the Arctic for media in Denmark, Greenland, Bruxelles, and the USA. He is a former tv-anchor and former deputy director of International Media Support that runs media development projects in more than 30 countries.

Philippe Brunet

European Commission Director

Space policy, Copernicus and Defence

Doctor in Medicine and Iuris Doctor in Community Law, he joined the Commission in 1988 where he held various posts, including Head of Cabinet for Commissioners Mrs Vassiliou and Mr. Kyprianou.

Since 2013 he was appointed Director of Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Industries, responsible for the Commissions Space Policy, Copernicus, Space Surveillance and Tracking, GOVSATCOM, and the EU actions in the domain of Defence, such as the European Defence Fund.

Philippe Brunet has two sons. He has been knighted in the French Order of the Legion of Honour in 2011.

Erlend Bullvåg

Dean

Nord University Business School

Erlend Bullvåg is educated within Economy and Engineering. He has worked with social analysis for many years, and holds lectures within areas such as entrepreneurship and innovational management at Nord University. He is currently working closely with the Business Index North project at the university.

Henry Burgess

Head

NERC Arctic Office

Henry is the Head of the NERC Arctic Office, hosted by the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge. The Office operates the UK’s Arctic Station in Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard, Norway); supports UK Arctic research activity; provide advice to policymakers, and develop international scientific cooperation across all aspects of Arctic research.

Inga Burton

University Engagement Manager

Universities, Education and Skills Team, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scotland

Firmly rooted in the north of Scotland Inga was brought up in Orkney with her family originating from Shetland. Growing up the sense of place and community was strong and Inga went on to study Environmental Biology & Management. Continuing down this route Inga has worked in the private, public and higher education sector where sustainable development has been a key focus. Her current position as University Engagement Manager with Highlands and Islands Enterprise combines her passion for education with sustainable development within the context of strengthening communities and economic development of rural and remote areas.

Michael Byers

Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law

University of British Columbia

Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on Outer Space, the Arctic, climate change, and armed conflict. Professor Byers has been a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Professor of Law at Duke University. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the Universities of Cape Town, Tel Aviv, and Novosibirsk. Professor Byers is the author of International Law and the Arctic (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Dorothée Cambou

Post-doctoral Researcher

University of Helsinki

Dorothée Cambou, PhD, is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. Formerly, she was conducting post-doctoral research at the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM) at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. Currently, the main focus of her research lies in human rights law in particular concerning the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples. She has also developed an expertise in the field of sustainable development and Arctic governance and cultivates a solid interest for the issues concerning business and human rights. She is now leading an independent research project on energy justice and the rights of indigenous peoples. Dorothée Cambou holds a Ph.D. in law from the Vrije University Brussel, where she defended a thesis on the legal significance of the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination and its implications for the Sami people.

Sherry Campbell

President & CEO

The Gordon Foundation

Sherry Campbell is the President and CEO of The Gordon Foundation. She has held a number of leadership roles in national and international organizations, and received the 2012 Queen’s Jubilee Medal for her work with Indigenous communities. The Gordon Foundation is a charitable organization dedicated to protecting Canada's water and empowering Canada's North. The Foundation’s Northern Policy Hackathons convene stakeholders from the three territories and Inuit Nunangat to build policy recommendations on northern issues. This year’s Northern Policy Hackathon focused on how the federal government can support the growth of Northern small and medium sized businesses.

Scott Carr

Chief Executive Officer

JASCO Applied Sciences (Canada) Ltd.

Scott Carr is the Chief Executive Officer of JASCO Applied Sciences (Canada) Ltd. JASCO is a world leader in the science of underwater sound and its potential effects on marine life, with extensive experience assessing underwater noise from shipping and other anthropogenic activities in the Arctic. Scott is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and a former Naval Officer. Outside of JASCO, Scott can be found coaching football at Horton High School, overseeing fair and safe competitions in Alpine Skiing and Ski Cross, swimming, or rowing on one of Nova Scotia’s lakes. Scott currently lives in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with his wife and two teenage children.

Marcus Carson

Research Fellow

Stockholm Environment Institute

Marcus has worked on issues involving linking science, policy and practice for over 30 years. He is particularly interested in how people, through organizations and institutions, organize and respond to pressing social and environmental problems, and has worked on issues that include health, integration, climate change and Arctic change. He earned his PhD in Sociology in 2004 from Stockholm University, where he also was awarded his Associate Professorship. At SEI he is Senior Research Fellow and leads the Arctic Resilience Assessment.

Martha Cerny

Curator, MAS, Zurich University of the Arts; & Director

Cerny Inuit Collection

Martha Cerny (Canadian/Swiss) is curator (MAS, Zurich University of the Arts) and director of the museum, Cerny Inuit Collection, in Bern Switzerland. She has been working with Canadian Inuit art and artists since 1995 und with artists from other circumpolar regions since 1998. Besides exhibitions in the museum, she has curated multiple national and international exhibitions, as well as, facilitating artists’ participation at various venues. The exhibition Indigenous contemporary art and climate change, brought to Iceland in partnership with the Canadian Embassy in Iceland, can be seen at the 2018 Arctic Circle Assembly.

Rita Cerutti

Director General

Policy and Planning with the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency

Rita is a Canadian federal public servant with a background in economics, environment and development, and international affairs. She joined the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency as the Director General of Policy and Planning in 2017. Prior to that, she was with Environment and Climate Change Canada, where she was involved in clean air and climate change issues, including as the Chair of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition; Arctic environment-related issues, through Canada’s participation in the work of the Arctic Council; and international environmental affairs, leading the department’s engagement in a variety of multilateral and regional environmental organizations.

Grace Cesario

PhD student, CUNY; & Fellow

Fulbright

Grace Cesario left California for colder climates and is now an archaeologist and PhD student at The Graduate Center, CUNY, in New York City. In Iceland, she partners with the Skagafjörður Heritage Museum and works with scholars at the Stefannson Arctic Institute in Akureyri. Her research focuses on the first centuries of Norse settlement in Iceland and the social and ecological effects of colonizing a previously uninhabited landscape. Grace specializes in zooarchaeology; she uses animal bones from archaeological sites to understand Viking Age economic strategies and the way these choices influenced political and social decision-making as well as landscape (re)organization.

Wen Chen

Professor

Institute of Atmospheric Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Prof. Wen Chen got Ph.D. in meteorology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994. Currently, he is a member of the SPARC SSG and editors of several international journals. His research interests include the dynamical coupling of stratosphere and troposphere, variability of Asian monsoon, and atmospheric circulation and teleconnection patterns. He has published more than 200 articles in the refereed journal.

Zhuoqi Chen

Associate Professor

College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University.

Dr. Zhuoqi Chen was born in 1982. He received the B.E. degrees in geography in 2003 from Beijing Normal University and the Master and Ph.D. degree in Cartography and GIS from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy Sciences, China. His research interest is polar remote sensing and data assimilation. He has published over 30 journal papers, including BAMS, JGR, RSE etc.

Xiao Cheng

Professor, Dean, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University; Secretary General

University Corporation for Polar Research (UCPR), China

Prof. Xiao Cheng was born in 1976. He received the B.E. and M. Tech degrees in Engineering survey in 1998, and the Ph.D. degree in Cartography and GIS from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy Sciences, China. His research interest is polar remote sensing. He is the secretary general of University Corporation for Polar Research (UCPR), China. He has published over 60 journal papers, including one in PNAS in 2015.

Miyase Christensen

Professor

Media and Communication Studies, Stockholm

Dr Miyase Christensen is a leading scholar on globalization and media studies and author of several books on media and globalization and the editor-in-chief of Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture. She is professor of Media and Communication Studies at Stockholm University and Guest Professor at the Division of History of Science, Technology and the Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Christensen’s research is interdisciplinary in nature and comprises thematic areas such as social theory perspectives on globalization processes and social change; identity, culture and mediation; and, politics of popular communication.

Anne Mette Christiansen

Head of Enact Advisory

Enact

Anne Mette Christiansen is leading Enact’s Advisory Services, which serves clients across Europe and Asia. She is part of Enact’s Management Team with responsibility for sales, business development, internationalization and strategy. She has worked with strategy, stakeholder engagement, compliance and sustainability since 2001 both as a consultant an and in leading roles in different organizations. She has extensive experience working with multinational and Nordic companies, international organizations as well as NGOs on strategy, sustainability and business development. Anne Mette has been part of several CSR projects in Greenland and was awarded the CSR Professional Award of the year in 2011.

Colin Clark

Associate Professor

Charles University

A graduate of Glasgow University and Charles University,Prague, I have spent my academic career teaching and researching Scottish literature. From teaching the first courses in this specialisation in Central Europe, I have now lectured in Czech, Slovakia,Hungary,Germany and Spain and offer students a raft of courses on aspects of our vibrant national literature. I have a special interest in Scottish Speculative and Science Fiction texts and am currently preparing a volume on this as well as reviews of modern texts for the ASLS.

Joel Clement

Senior Fellow

Harvard Kennedy School

Joel Clement is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School with a background in resilience and climate change adaptation, landscape-scale conservation and management, and Arctic social-ecological systems. Prior to joining the Kennedy School, Mr. Clement served as an executive for seven years at the US Department of the Interior before blowing the whistle on the Trump Administration for ignoring climate change and its impacts on Alaska Native villages. In addition to his role at Harvard, he is an Associate with the Stockholm Environmental Institute and a Senior Fellow with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Ken Coates

Canada Research Chair

Regional Innovation, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan

Ken Coates is Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan.  Raised in the Canadian North. Ken has a long-standing interest in regional economic development and the potential impact of emerging technologies on northern communities.  He is leading several community-based research projects focusing on working with communities in the provincial and territorial Norths to identify their priorities in terms of technological change.  He is also a Munk Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Elena Conde

Professor

Public International Law at the Department of International Law

Elena Conde is professor of Public International Law at the Department of International Law, Complutense University of Madrid. Law of the Sea has been one of her prominent fields of research, since her PhD focused on “Marine Scientific Research: Rights and duties of States under the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea” (1997). She was the lead researcher of the research project “The race for the Arctic: international law issues considering climate change” (2012-2016). Elena has been the Spanish delegate before the SHWG of International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) since 2013. She is the editor and author of one of the chapters of the volume Global Challenges in the Arctic Region: Sovereignty, Environment and Geopolitical Balance (Routledge, 2017).

Cara Condit

Executive Director

United States Coast Guard’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy (CASP)

Cara Condit is the Executive Director of the United States Coast Guard’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy (CASP). Cara previously served as the Deputy Chief for the Coast Guard’s Environmental Law Office and continues to specialize in policy and legislation to further Coast Guard missions in the Arctic maritime domain.

Marie-Anne Coninsx

Ambassador at Large for the Arctic

European Union

Marie-Anne Coninsx is Ambassador at Large for the Arctic, since September 2017. She previously was European Union' Ambassador to Canada (2013-2017) - where she extensively visited the Canadian Arctic, after serving 4 years as the EU Ambassador to Mexico.

She also served as the number two at the EU Delegations in New York and Geneva, providing her with extensive experience on multilateral issues. She has been an EU official since 1984.

Ambassador Coninsx studied law at Gent University (Belgium), did post-graduate studies at Cambridge University (UK) and at European University in Nancy (France). She is Belgian and speaks 5 languages.

Heather A. Conley

Senior VP for Europe, Eurasia, Arctic, Director of the Europe Program

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

Heather A. Conley: Senior VP for Europe, Eurasia, Arctic, and Director of the Europe Program, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Ms. Conley has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for U.S. bilateral relations with northern and central Europe. Ms. Conley is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Arctic and is frequently featured as an analyst on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, and PBS. She received her M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Danielle Conway

Dean & Professor

University of Maine School of Law

Dean and Professor at University of Maine School of Law. Over 15 years of experience as an author, speaker, trainer, and consultant in all aspects of Government Contracts and Intellectual Property, with emphasis on management and best practices.

David Cook

Post-Doctoral Researcher

University of Iceland

David is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Iceland, linked to the ARCPATH project (Arctic Climate Predictions - Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies). His research focus concerns Arctic ecosystem services associated with cetaceans. In his recent PhD, he researched ecosystem services deriving from geothermal landscapes and used the contingent valuation method to estimate willingness to pay for the preservation of such areas in Iceland. Other recent research has focused on the topics of environmental sustainability, indicators of environmental performance, and risk management in the Arctic involving hydrocarbon developments. David also lectures in Environmental Economics at the University of Iceland.

Michael T. Corgan

Associate Professor, International Relations

Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Professor Michael T. Corgan is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University. He specializes in international security, Nordic affairs and the Arctic. Publications include “Iceland and Its Alliances: Security for a Small State” (2003). He was a Fulbright Professor in Political Science at the University of Iceland in 2001, returning in 2006 and 2014. A US Naval Academy graduate, he was a career naval officer for 25 years. While in the Navy, he had four sea tours and was an advisor to the Vietnamese Navy. He also taught at the US Naval Academy and US Naval War College and was Political Advisor to the Commander, Iceland Defense Force, 1981 and 1982.

Stephen Cornelius

Member

WWF’s International Climate & Energy Leadership Team and Leads on 1.5°C and the IPCC for WWF

Stephen Cornelius is a member of WWF’s international climate and energy leadership team and leads on 1.5°C and the IPCC for WWF. He joined WWF in 2015 as chief adviser on climate change. Hailing from Australia, Stephen has a PhD in control engineering from the University of Cambridge. He worked in the UK and Japan for three years on automotive pollution control before a decade with the British civil service on climate change science, policy and international climate change negotiations at the UNFCCC and the IPCC – covering mitigation, the Kyoto Protocol and forests and land use.

Barry A. Costa-Pierce

Executive Director, UNE NORTH; & Henry L. & Grace Doherty Professor of Marine Sciences

University of New England

In his 40-year career, Barry A. Costa-Pierce has developed of local-to-global scientific and educational programs and partnerships in food, energy, and water systems. He has worked as an institute and center director, research scientist, and policy expert in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and in the U.S. at state and private universities from Hawai'i to Maine. His research interest is in “Ocean Food Systems:” how seafood systems interact with marine ecosystems, fisheries, aquaculture, and people. Barry has a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Hawai’i, an M.Sc. in Zoology and Limnology from the University of Vermont, and B.A. in Zoology from Drew University.

Paul Crowley

Vice-president

Arctic, WWF Canada

Paul Crowley, a long-time resident of Nunavut, has worked on sustainable development in the Arctic and internationally for over 20 years. He served as Principal Secretary to the Premier of Nunavut, Eva Aariak. A lawyer, Paul has provided counsel through the years on a wide array of Arctic matters. Previously, he supported Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, to introduce human rights into UN climate negotiations. As part of this work he conceived and helped create Many Strong Voices – a coalition between Arctic Peoples and Small Island States. Paul assisted many Inuit organizations, including as Special Counsel to the Qikiqtani Truth Commission.

Esther Dahl

Adviser

Faroese House of Industry

Esther Dahl is an adviser in matters concerning labour market negotiations and wage settlements and she is also the main responsible for maritime affairs in the House of Industry. Graduating as cand.negot. in 1997, she spent more than seven years at the Prime Minister’s office, before occupying her current position at the House of Industry in 2005. She represents the Faroese Merchant Shipowners’ Association and has been involved in several working groups over the years. Most recently she participated in the creation of the Faroese shipping and maritime policy in 2017.

Jon Georg Dale

Minister of Transport and Communications

Norway

Jon Georg Dale was appointed Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communications on 31 August 2018. Prior to the appointment he served as Minister of Agriculture from 2015. In 2013 he was appointed as a State Secretary in the Solberg`s Cabinet`s Ministry of Transport and Communications. He served as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 2014-2015. Dale is representing the Progress Party in the government.

Brigt Dale

Senior Researcher

Nordland Research Institute

Brigt Dale holds a PhD in Political Science and a MSc in Visual Anthropology and ins a Senior Researcher at Nordland Research Institute. In his work, he primarily focuses on the relation between societies and their natural surroundings, as well as the effects of resources being extracted from nature. In recent years, his primary focus has been on the extractive industries, and he has recently co-edited the book "Will to Drill. Mining in Arctic Communities" and finalized the ARCTICCHALLENGE project, in which the petroleum push northwards has been investigated, focussing on the consequences for local communities in the Arctic.

Clint Davis

CEO

North35 Capital Partners

Clint Davis is the CEO of North35 Capital Partners, a business and capital advisory firm that works with Indigenous governments and economic development corporations to achieve growth by maximizing of their inherent competitive advantage. Prior to the creation of this company, Clint was the Vice President of Indigenous Banking at TD. Clint, who is Inuit from Labrador, is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Nunatsiavut Group of Companies, which is the economic arm of Nunatsiavut Government. Clint began his career as a lawyer in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, later entered public service at the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada before moving to BMO as the National Director for Aboriginal Banking. He later became President and CEO for the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. In 2016, Clint received the Indspire Award for Business and Commerce and he recently served on the Interim Board of Directors of the National Council for Reconciliation, a Federal Cabinet appointment. Clint has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Acadia University, a Bachelors of Laws from Dalhousie University and a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Brynhildur Davíðsdóttir

Professor

University of Iceland

Dr. Davíðsdóttir is a Professor of Environment and Natural Resources at University of Iceland (UoI). She also is the director of UoI Arctic Initiative, academic director of the Environment and Natural Resources graduate programme at UoI and sits on the board of UoI Institute of Economic Studies. In addition to her academic duties Dr. Davidsdottir is a board member of several Icelandic companies and foundations. Dr. Davíðsdóttir has extensive teaching, research and consulting experience with a focus on transitions to low carbon energy systems, ecosystem services, sustainability indicators and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Roman Decca

Strategy and Engineering

Ice911

Roman Decca bridges the gap between engineering and execution for Ice911. He helps with all critical aspects to Ice911’s mission from translating testing data, deployment engineering and materials testing, to growth strategy. His educational background spans Energy Engineering and Atmospheric Science at Stanford University and Business Administration at U.C. Berkeley.

Geraldine Deliencourt-Godefroy

Chief scientific Officer & Founder

TFChem/Sirona Biochem

After a PhD in organic chemistry at Rouen University and 2 years of postdoctoral position at University College of London, Geraldine Deliencourt-Godefroy developed a technological platform of sugars mimics. In 2007, she founded TFChem, a Drug Discovery company using this technology for the development of new and innovative drugs and cosmeceutical. She achieved the merger of TFChem with Sirona Biochem, a Vancouver publically traded company in 2011, and became the CSO of both companies. She develops a portfolio of different project in different areas: diabetes, cancer, inflammation and also for biological materials preservation mimicking antifreeze glycoprotein present in arctic fishes.

Maurizio Demarte

Commander

Italian Hydrographic Institute (IIM)

Maurizio DEMARTE is an Italian Navy Commander, Head of the Marine Geophysical and Oceanographic department at the Istituto Idrografico della Marina since 2016. He has spent much his carrier on-board IT-Navy Hydrographic vessel as Hydrographic Surveyor and Hydro-Oceanographic research manager. He has been the Commanding Officer of IT Navy HSV Galatea and HSV Ammiraglio MAGNAGHI. In 2008, he earned an MSC degree in Marine Geomatics (University of Genoa and Istituto Idrografico della Marina). His research activity focuses on rapid environmental assessment and the development of new technologies and geometoc workflow to produce seabed maps, nautical charts, water column and target detection. He is Program Manager of Italian Navy Arctic Marine Geophysics Joint Research Program HIGH NORTH.

Duncan Depledge

Director

All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Polar Regions in Westminster

Duncan Depledge is the Director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Polar Regions in Westminster. From 2016-2018 he served as the special adviser to the House of Commons Defence Committee inquiry on ‘UK Defence in the Arctic’. Previously, Duncan worked at the Royal United Services Institute (2010-2014), where he remains an Associate Fellow. He received his PhD in Geography from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2014. He also has an MPhil in Geography from the University of Cambridge, as well as an MA in Political Theory and a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Sheffield. Duncan is the author of Britain and the Arctic (Palgrave 2018).

Minghu Ding

Associate Professor

Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration Presentation

Minghu Ding, Associate Professor, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration Presentation. Dr. Minghu Ding was born in 1983 and received his Ph.D degree in Geology and Geography from Chinese Academy Sciences. He has a wider interest in polar meteorology, cryosphere sciences and atmospheric chemistry, especially energy balance modeling, isotopes and mass balance. Now he is the director of Institute of Polar Meteorolgoy, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. He has published more than 80 papers.

Klaus Dodds

Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, & Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

University of London

Klaus Dodds is Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His latest books are Ice: Nature and Culture (Reaktion 2018) and a forthcoming co-authored volume The Arctic: What Everyone needs to Know (OUP 2019). He is specialist adviser to the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee’s Changing Arctic Enquiry.

Craig Donlon

Principal Scientist for Oceans and Ice

European Space Agency, Noordwijk, the Netherlands

Craig Donlon is the Principal Scientist for Oceans and Ice at the European Space Agency Earth Observation Programmes Directorate. Prior to this he was the WMO/IOC Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology JCOMM Services program Coordinator, with expert teams for sea ice, ocean forecasting systems, wind waves and storm surges, marine safety information services, and marine emergency and response. He has worked at the Hadley Centre, Met Office UK, the University of Colorado, USA, and at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in the Institute for Environment and Sustainability. His main interests in remote sensing of oceans and ice.

Sebastian Drude

Director

Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding

Sebastian Drude, a linguist interested in linguistic diversity, is the Director of the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, a UNESCO Centre at the University of Iceland. S. Drude obtained a Dr.Phil.-degree at the Freie Universität Berlin in 2002. Over 12 years he studied the Awetí language in central Brazil. From 2008 to 2011 he held a Dilthey-Fellowship at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Then, he worked as Scientific Coordinator and Head of 'The Language Archive' (TLA) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics, and later as general coordinator at the European research Infrastructure CLARIN ERIC.

Nicolas Dubreuil

Director

Expedition Cruises, Le Ponant

Nicolas DUBREUIL, PhD and teacher in computer science at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, became a polar explorer 27 years ago. Organizer and guide of more than one hundred expeditions by ski, kayak, sledge or diving, he leads expeditions for sportsmen, scientists, film crews, tourists and disabled people from Svalbard to Chukotka via Greenland and Antarctica. He spends more than 6 months a year on the ice pack, living in Kullorsuaq, a small village of the north of Greenland. Polar Regions Specialist, he is also a Photographer and Author of many books about adventure, expedition tourism and polar regions. Since 12 years, he shares the PONANT adventure aboard the company's ships as Expedition Leader and recently as Director of Expeditions Cruises and Sustainability.

Philip B. Duffy

President

Executive Director of the Woods Hole Research Center

Philip B. Duffy is President and Executive Director of the Woods Hole Research Center. Between 2011 and 2015 he helped to formulate and implement domestic and international climate policy as a Senior Advisor in the Obama White House. He has been an adjunct faculty member at UC Merced and has held visiting academic posts at Stanford University and at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Dr. Duffy has served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, and as an Senior Advisor to the US Department of State. He has a bachelor's degree from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford University.

Aurora Eide

Alumnus

SOI 2018 Arctic Expedition

I’m a 20 year old girl from the western coast of Norway currently studying at the University of Glasgow. This summer I was lucky enough to be a part of the 2018 Arctic Expedition. I am someone who has always been passionate about the ocean and sustainability, but my experiences with SOI became a turning point in my life. Now I am dedicated to take my experiences and work for action on climate change and Arctic issues. I also hope to use my voice through creative arts to reach out to people. To me, this delegation is a unique opportunity and an important next step on my journey. I look forward to gain new knowledge, meet other inspirational people, and develop ideas on how us youth can be change makers in our communities and in the world.

Kirt Ejesiak

Chairman & CEO

Arctic UAV, Iqaluit, Nunavut

Kirt Ejesiak is a seasoned manager with 25 years experienced running startups in the Arctic and is past chairperson of Ilitturvik University Society. He has been chairman on the board of the Iqaluit Museum, served as deputy mayor of the city, and vice-chair of Nunavut Trust. Kirt is a Fulbright Scholar and attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and completed his Masters of Public Administration in 2005. He was vice president and executive member of the Inuit Circumpolar Council from 2010-2014. He lives in Iqaluit with his partner Dr. Madeleine Cole and has 3 children.

Johanna Ekman

Project manager

Finnish Meteorological Institute

Johanna Ekman has a doctoral degree in marine biology and is also a docent of hydrobiology. In her doctoral thesis from in 1997 at the University of Helsinki, Finland, she studied the biology of sea ice in the Arctic, Antarctic and the Baltic Sea. Later, she has made a career with an unexceptionally wide range of expertise; she has had positions as a lecturer and later an acting professor of hydrobiology at the Univ. of Helsinki, Head of Biosciences and Environment Unit at the Academy of Finland, Head of Environmental Affairs at the Central Union of Finnish Farmers and Forest Owners MTK, and Head of Marine Research Unit at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI). In 2014-2016 she worked as ministerial adviser at the Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications. Now she leads FMI’s activities related to Finland’s chairmanship in the Arctic Council (2017-1019). She is also the Chair of The Board for “ArcTrade” Growth Programme in Business Finland. In the core of her expertise are matters related to the Arctic “sensu lato”: sustainable development, oceans, meteorology and business in the Arctic, and promoting arctic knowhow

Secilil Eldebechel

Chief of Staff

Office of the President, Republic of Palau

Secilil has worked as a public servant for 24 years. He took up the role of Chief of Staff to President Tommy E. Remengesau Jr in 2013. Prior to this he was an elected member of the House of Delegates of the Olbiil Era Kelulau (Palau National Congress), representing the State of Ngchesar. During his tenure here he served as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and represented the OEK on the Boards of Governors and Directors of the Pacific Islands Development Bank.

Secilil has held several government advisory and management positions, including Senior Tax Advisor for the Division of Revenue and Taxation, Project Manager for the UNDP-funded Public Sector Development Project, Advisor and Interim Program Coordinator for the Ministry of Finance, and Director of the Bureau of Public Service System.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Business Finance in 1994.

Matt Emerson

President

PDC Engineers

Matt Emerson joined PDC Engineers in 1997. He has 20 years of experience as a structural engineer in Alaska and over 35 years working in the construction industry. He is a registered Professional Structural and Civil Engineer in the State of Alaska. Beginning his career as a carpenter and journeyman plumber, Matt’s construction background brings practical solutions to engineering projects. His areas of expertise include structural assessment and analysis of existing and new structures, along with lateral analysis for wind and earthquake loads. As part of the PDC multi-discipline team, Matt has designed and managed numerous building projects throughout Alaska’s northern region.

Stacy J. Ettinger

Partner

K&L Gates

Stacy J. Ettinger is a Partner in the Washington DC office of K&L Gates, a fully integrated global law firm with lawyers located across five continents. Stacy leads the firm’s international trade and investment policy practice, and advises U.S. and foreign companies operating across a diverse range of sectors including manufacturing, energy (LNG, solar, wind), infrastructure, and maritime, in various geographic regions including Asia and the Arctic. She has over 25 years of experience working with U.S. and foreign businesses and foreign governments on international trade, regulatory, investment, and policy matters.

Heather Exner-Pirot

Managing editor

Arctic Yearbook

Dr. Heather Exner-Pirot is the managing editor of the Arctic Yearbook. She is a regular contributor to Radio Canada’s Eye on the Arctic website, a Board member for both The Arctic Institute (TAI) and the Saskatchewan First Nations Economic Development Network, Editorial Board member for the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal, and Chair of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust. She is currently a strategist for outreach and indigenous engagement at the University of Saskatchewan, and has held previous positions at the International Centre for Northern Governance and Development and the University of the Arctic. She completed her doctoral degree in political science at the University of Calgary in 2011, focusing on Arctic regionalization and human security. Her additional research interests include Indigenous and northern governance, economic development, health care, and post-secondary education.

Alexey Fadeev

Leading Scientist

Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences

Dr. Alexey Fadeev has graduated from Murmansk State Technical University in 2003, Marine-engineering faculty. 

In 2006 he has got PhD degree in Economics from Murmansk State Technical University after successful dissertation defending.

Since 2008  Dr. Fadeev occupies the position of Senior researcher at the Luzin Institute for Economic Problems (Division of Marine Activities Economics in the Arctic), Kola Scientific Centre (Apatity city), Russian Academy of Sciences.

Author of more than 60 scientific publications related to development of Oil & Gas industry in the Arctic and 2 monographs.  

In 2012 Dr. Fadeev got the status of Expert of the NPO “Russian International Affairs Council”.

Marianne Falardeau

Ph. D. candidate

McGill University

Marianne Falardeau is a Ph. D. candidate at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) with an expertise in Arctic marine ecology and sustainability science. She studies Arctic marine food webs and ecosystem services, such as healthy marine food, and their importance for northern communities. Marianne owns a BSc (Biology) and a MSc (Marine biology) from Université Laval. Her Master’s thesis looked at the northward expansion of boreal fish species into the Arctic. She has worked in both the Arctic and Antarctica on research projects in marine ecology. Marianne has been involved in APECS Canada (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists - Canada’s Committee) since 2015, including as the chair.

Jie Fan

Professor of Human Geography and Regional Sustainable Development

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Prof. Fan Jie is a professor in Human Geography and Regional Sustainable Development at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently he is the Director of Centre for Sustainable Development Research of Chinese Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of French Society. He graduated from Peking University. His major research fields are regional sustainable development of China, spatial planning, and regional policy consultation. He directed and completed Major Function Oriented Zoning of China, which has been the foundation of China’s existing regional policy and spatial planning. He also developed Evaluation of Resources and Environmental Carrying Capacity and contributed to China’s sustainable development. He has prepared reports in Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and his work has been approved by the central government in China. Since 2005, he has been a Committee Member of National Committee, and directly participated in National 11th, 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan.

Bruce Farnsworth

Co-Director

8Boxes

Anchorage based writer, conceptual artist and community organizer, Bruce Farnsworth is the founder and director of the MTS Gallery in Anchorage, Alaska which hosted a renowned program of cutting edge visual art exhibitions and performance art work by invited artists from around the state and the world. He is a founding member of the Light Brigade, a multimedia art group, and Track & Field, creator of the 8Boxes project. In 2011, Farnsworth was the recipient of the first ever “President’s Award” from the Rasmuson Foundation, an award created by the foundation’s President and CEO to honor his work in neighborhood revitalization through the arts.

Per Fauchald

Senior Research Scientist, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research; Leader

Fram Centre research programme, Environmental impact of industrial development in the north (MIKON)

Senior Research Scientist, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and leader for the Fram Centre research programme, Environmental impact of industrial development in the north (MIKON)

Gao Feng

Special Representative for Arctic Affairs

People’s Republic of China

Mr. Gao Feng is the Special Representative for Arctic Affairs of MFA of China. He was born on August 18, 1954 in Beijing. He studied at Peking University and Nottingham University, graduated with a L.L.M. Degree in public international law. Mr. Gao joined foreign service in 1985. He was appointed the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry in 1999. In 2005 he joined the UNFCCC secretariat as the Deputy Executive Secretary. In 2011 he was appointed the Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations until he assumed the present post in November 2016 .

Leslie Field

Founder & CEO

Ice911

Leslie Field, Ph.D., has been working to save polar ice since 2006. An inventor with 54 US patents who has worked at HP Labs, Agilent Labs and Chevron Research, Leslie earned her B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and her MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley, with a minor in materials science. She now runs Ice911 Research and lectures at Stanford University.

Matthias Finger

Professor

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne

Matthias Finger is an expert of the governance of network industries. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of Geneva and has been an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University (New York), an Associate Professor at Columbia University (New York) and a Full Professor of Management of Public Enterprises at the Swiss Federal Institute of Public Administration. Since 2002, he holds the Swiss Post Chair in Management of Network Industries at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has developed the GlobalArctic MOOC and is the co-editor of the GlobalArctic Handbook (Springer).

Greg Finnegan

CEO

Na-cho Nyäk Dun DevCorp

Greg holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (York University) in Canadian geography and regional economic development and is the CEO of the Na-cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation with offices in Whitehorse, Yukon. Greg continues to research and publish on northern and Indigenous labour market issues while managing a diversified business portfolio that ranges from firms specializing in engineering and environmental remediation and renewable energy through to a community grocery store and a wildfire fighting crew in Mayo. He has served as both the acting Chief of Geography at the National Atlas of Canada and as the Chief Statistician for Yukon.

William W. Fitzhugh

Director

Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian

William W. Fitzhugh is an American archaeologist and anthropologist who directs the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center and is a Senior Scientist at the National Museum of Natural History. He has conducted archaeological research throughout the circumpolar region investigating cultural responses to climate and environmental change and European contact. He has published numerous books and more than 150 journal articles and has produced large international exhibitions and popular films. Of particular note are the many exhibition catalogues he has had edited, which make syntheses of scholarly research on these subjects available to readers and visitors.

Valerie Fogleman

Consultant, Stevens & Bolton LLP; Professor of Law

Cardiff University School of Law and Politics

Valerie Fogleman: Professor of Law at Cardiff University School of Law and Politics and a Consultant at Stevens & Bolton LLP. Ms. Fogleman has over 30 years of experience in teaching and practising environmental law in England and the U.S. She has written three books, co-authored others, written numerous articles and given presentations on environmental law. One project she carried out (with Deloitte) for the European Commission included analysing liability regimes, claims handling, and financial security instruments for compensation from offshore oil and gas pollution incidents for 20 States (18 Member States of the EU, Iceland, and Norway).

Mads Forchhammer

Professor

The University Centre in Svalbard

Professor Mads Forchhammer - UNIS Svalbard - is a quantitative population biologist. He has a considerable experience within the field of Global Change Biology, how climatic changes  interact with the ecology and dynamics of terrestrial plants, animals and their biotic environment. His work was among the first to simultaneously incorporate climatic variation into population models as well as empirically demonstrate specific phenotypic, life history and

behavioural responses to global climate change within and across trophic levels in ecosystems. His recent work has focused on the quantitative modelling of the resilience of species and system responses to climate changes.

Benjamin Ford

Partner

Verrill Dana, LLP

Ben is a partner at the law firm, Verrill Dana, LLP headquartered in Portland, Maine, U.S. He specializes in International Technology Transfer. Specifically, Ben helps companies, universities, and other institutions develop and find markets for their technology. For the last four years, Ben’s focus has been on building trade relationships between Maine and the High North Atlantic. He has been practicing law for the last ten years and before that, worked to establish markets for marine equipment manufacturers throughout the United States and Canada. Ben serves on the Arctic Economic Council’s working group on shipping and logistics, the UNE North Advisory Board, and the High North Atlantic Business Alliance Secretariat.

Louis Fortier

Director

Science and Innovation, Institut nordique du Québec

A specialist of the ecology of marine zooplankton and fish, Professor Louis Fortier holds the Canada Research Chair on the response of arctic marine ecosystems to climate warming. He has coordinated several international arctic research programs such as the International North Water Polynya Study (NOW) and the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES). He is the Scientific Leader for the Canadian Research Icebreaker Amundsen. Fortier is Scientific Director of Canada’s Network of Centres of Excellence ArcticNet (2004-2018) and of the Unité Mixte Internationale Takuvik of the French Conseil national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).

Jane Francis

Director

British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge

Jane Francis is Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge. A geologist by training from the University of Southampton (B.Sc, PhD), she was a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Palaeoclimatology at the University of Leeds, where she was also Dean of the Faculty of Environment. Her research interests include ancient climates and fossil plants from the Arctic and Antarctica. She was awarded the Polar Medal for her contribution to British polar research and was appointed as Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to UK polar science and diplomacy.

Anu Fredrikson

Director

Arctic Economic Council (AEC) Secretariat, Tromsø, Norway

Anu Fredrikson is the Director of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC) Secretariat located in Tromsø, Norway. The AEC is an independent business organization established in 2014. It facilitates Arctic business-to-business activities and responsible economic development. The AEC provides advice and a business perspective to the work of the Arctic Council. Ms. Fredrikson has previously worked with foreign and security policy, issues related to energy and economy, climate and development policies as well as trade promotion and the Arctic. Prior to joining the AEC in 2016, Ms. Fredrikson worked as an Advisor in Political Affairs and Arctic Policy at the Embassy of Finland in Oslo. Ms. Fredrikson is originally from Oulu, Finland. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Tampere in Finland and holds a Certificat d’Etudes Politiques from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille in France. She has also studied in the United States and Norway.

Fu Chengyu

former Chairman of SINOPEC Corporation; Member

United Nations Global Compact Board

Mr. Fu，who has over 40 years of experience in the oil industry. He had been the chairman and CEO of CNOOC , chairman for SINOPEC and the Member of the 12^th Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is a political advisor body in China. He is currently the Chair of UNGC Network China. He is also the board member of trustees of the University of Southern California, the member of the international advisory board of CGEP，Columbia University.

Mr. Fu has well recognized in the oil industry and the capital markets. He won numerous recognitions and awards, including Asian Oil and Gas Industry’s CEO of the Year in2004, and “Strategic Vision” by the World Economist Group in 2006, “Best Executive in Asia”by Asia Money in 2007, and“Most Influential Business Leader in China”by Fortune in 2008.In 2011 and 2012, he was named“Business person of the Year” by Fortune and “Executive to Watch in 2012”by Wall Street Journal. He was elected “Petroleum Executive of Year 2012 by the Energy Intelligence Group. He received the "Legend in Leadership” award by Yale School of Management in 2013 and Platts’“Asia CEO of Year” in 2014.His other awards include the “South-South and Triangular Cooperation Champion 2013”by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.

Masao Fukasawa

Research Counselor of Japan Marine Earth Acience and Technology (JAMSTEC)
Professor of National Institute of Polar Research (NiPR)
Project Director of Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) Japan

Oyvind Fylling-Jensen

EO & Managing Director

Nofima AS, Norway

Dr. Oyvind Fylling-Jensen, DVM, Ph.D., has a broad commercial background in research management, biotechnology, diagnostics, pharmacology and aquaculture and has held several executive positions in those industries. He has successfully led the transformation of Nofima to an internationally recognized applied research institute after the merger of four independent institutes in 2008 and has served as their managing director since 2009. Fylling-Jensen has also served on several company boards and he is a board member of the Research Council of Norway since 2011, appointed by Norway’s Ministry of Education and Research.

Samuel Gagnon

PhD candidate

Laval University

Samuel Gagnon is a PhD candidate at Laval University in Québec city, Canada. After completing he B.Sc. in environmental science at Bishop’s University (Canada), he pursued a master’s degree at Laval University where he was introduced to permafrost science. His main research areas are permafrost geomorphology, ecology and ice wedge activity. The main themes of his doctoral research are the effect of climate change on ice wedge activity and how the changes in vegetation have affected the permafrost thermal regime. He has been working in the Arctic for more than five years, in the continuous permafrost zone in Northern Québec.

Jean-Charles Gallet

Researcher

Norwegian Polar Institute

Jean-Charles Gallet is researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø and his work focuses on snow and its interaction with the different components of the Earth system in the Polar regions. Of particular interest is the distribution of snow on land and its role on the mass balance of glacier, the Earth energy budget and the feedbacks between the snow cover and the biodiversity. His work is based on field observation and he is currently deploying new system to monitor the snow cover in the frame of the SIOS project in Svalbard.

Attilio Gambardella

Policy Officer

Climate Action and Earth Observations Unit in the DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission

Policy Officer at the Climate Action and Earth Observations Unit in the DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission A. Gambardella is responsible for the development of the EC Polar research policy and is the project officer of the EU-PolarNet project. Before taking his current position he was working at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and previously in the academic sector field dealing mainly with Earth Observation research for the marine environment. Dr. Gambardella graduated in Nautical Sciences and later received the Ph.D. degree in electronic and computer science engineering.

Lei Geng

Professor

University of Science and Technology of China

Prof. Lei Geng is a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China. He received his B.Sc from USTC in 2006 and Ph.D from South Dakota State University in 2012. From 2012 to 2015, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. In 2015 he was awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship and worked in LGGE-CNRS until joining USTC. His main research interests include ice-core glaciochemistry, air-snow interactions, sea ice and atmospheric chemistry in cold regions. His has published more than 10 papers in top-tier journals including Nature and PNAS.

Monica Germanà

Senior Lecturer

University of Westminster

Monica Germanà is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Westminster. Her research concentrates on contemporary British literature, with a specific emphasis on the Gothic and gender. Her publications include Scottish Women’s Gothic and Fantastic Writing (EUP, 2010), Ali Smith: New Critical Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2013) co-edited with Emily Horton, and Scottish Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (EUP, 2017), co-edited with Carol Davison. She is currently working on a new monograph called Bond Girls: Body, Fashion, Gender (Bloomsbury), has recently started a new research project on haunted Scotland and is currently collaborating with Dr Ingibjörg Ágústsdóttir to set up a new interdisciplinary Research Network on Scotland and the North.

Donatella Giampaolo

e-GEOS

She has over 20 years of experience in the Earth Observation business, with a special focus on Very High Resolution Satellite imagery requirements, both Optical and Radar and related services. 

For several years, Donatella worked in the Eurimage Business Development Department as the EU Key Account Manager, including International Organizations such as ESA, SATCEN and United Nations. For the past few years, she has been in charge of the European sales within the e-GEOS Business Development & Sales department. 

Donatella focused recently on the business development of COSMO-SkyMed data, e-GEOS geo-information derived services, receiving stations and platforms in the European High North.

Mary Gibbons

Business Owner

Arctic Adventure Bucket List Tour

Mary Gibbons has been the owner/tour guide of The Arctic Adventure Bucket List Tour since 2014 leading groups of women through the Arctic Circle.   Mary began her passion for “all things Arctic” in 2005 when she began working with ICEHOTEL. Mary’s first task with ICEHOTEL was as a “snice girl” on the building team. Her continued involvement with ICEHOTEL  branched out to builder, support team, teacher, and then writer of the ICEHOTEL A&D Catalogue as well as a contributing author of ICEHOTEL - The Definitive Book of Art and Design.  Mary’s interest in tourism, snow and ice events, and culture brought her throughout Scandinavia Lapland in Sweden, Norway and Finland where she established relationships with various venues and local vendors. Mary is also a popular lecturer and radio guest in Connecticut where she lives.

Lisa (Diz) Glithero

National Coordinator

Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition

With a PhD in Education and a former classroom teacher, Diz is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa (Canada), and is passionate about developing eco-civic leadership capacity in youth. Recently, Diz served as the lead coordinator and author of a development plan to support the co-creation of a Canadian Ocean Literacy Strategy, and in turn, the formation of the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition. As of September 2018, she has been appointed the National Coordinator of the Coalition. Diz has been honoured with an International Women of the Earth Award by the Yves Rocher Foundation, and received a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada.

Alexey Glukhov

Art Lead

8Boxes

Alexey is a Russian event manager and producer, based in Moscow. He has worked in different scopes of events from art exhibitions, music or theater festivals and concert shows to sport events. Notable events include the Long Arms avant-garde music festival in Moscow and the Arab Games in Doha, Qatar.

Geoff Green

Founder & President

Students on Ice, Canada

Geoff Green is a global leader in polar education and youth engagement and is the Founder and President of the award-winning Students on Ice Foundation. For over 25 years Geoff has dedicated his career to raising awareness and understanding of the Arctic, the Antarctic and places in between. A visionary and creative spirit, and someone who inspires action, Geoff has received numerous awards and recognitions over the course of his career. Most notably, he has been appointed to the prestigious Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour.

Ólavur Gregersen

Managing Director

Ocean Rainforest

Ólavur Gregersen has more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur. He is leading a pioneering effort to crack the code on how to develop profitable seaweed farming. Ocean Rainforest is the test bed for open ocean seaweed cultivation in Faroese waters. The result is likely to contribute significantly to fulfil the SDG 14 (ocean) ambitions. Ólavur has also been the co-ordinator and har other leading positions in a number of European and Nordic research and development projects within agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture.

Daria Gritsenko

Assistant professor

University of Helsinki

Daria Gritsenko is an assistant professor at the University of Helsinki. Daria’s focus is on maritime transportation and energy, in particular on policymaking activities of private actors, environmental sustainability and large infrastructure governance in the Russian Arctic. Her work has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Energy Policy, Marine Policy, Maritime Policy and Management, and professional magazines. Her on-going research project explores the future of renewable energy in Russian regions. Daria is the founder of the Digital Russia Studies, an international and interdisciplinary network of scholars and students who share the interest in combining data science and social sciences.

Max Gruenig

President

Ecologic Institute, US

Max Gruenig is President of Ecologic Institute US and has been with Ecologic Institute since 2007. His work focuses on sustainable development in the energy and transport sector, as well as urban sustainability and resilient cities. He is one of the editors of the 2018 Arctic Summer College Yearbook (Springer).

Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson

Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources

Government of Iceland

Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson took office as Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources on November 30 2017 for the Left-Green Party. He holds a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Iceland and a masters degree in Environmental Management from Yale University. He was the CEO at Landvernd – Icelandic Environment Association from 2011-2017. He also worked for the University of Iceland carrying out research in ecology and environmental sciences, and for the Soil Conservation Service of Iceland in the fields of global studies and research. Since 2006, Guðmundur Ingi has been a guest lecturer at the University of Iceland, the Agricultural University of Iceland and the University Centre of the Westfjords. He has also worked as a park ranger almost every summer for the last few years.

Heiðar Guðjónsson

Managing Director, Ursus; & Chairman

Syn

Heidar Gudjonsson is the managing director of Ursus and chairman of the board of Syn, the largest media and telecommunications company in Iceland. Heidar founded Eykon Energy, an oil exploration company and is the chairman of the board. He also founded the first infrastructure investment fund in the Arctic. Gudjonsson is the vice chair of the second largest utility in Iceland, HS Veitur.

He is the chairman of the Icelandic Arctic Chamber of Commerce, vice chair of the Arctic Economic Council and serves on the advisory board of the Arctic Circle.  Gudjonsson is the author of the “Arctic Push: Iceland and the Opportunities” (2013) a bestseller in Iceland.

Hrönn G. Guðmundsdóttir

Director

Rif Field Station

Hrönn G. Guðmundsdóttir is currently the acting director of Rif Field Station, NE-Iceland. She holds an M.S. degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science from Lund University, Sweden, and has a background in philosophy and geography.

Sveinn Hólmar Guðmundsson

Quality & Environmental Manager

Elding Whale Watching

Sveinn is the Quality & Environmental manager at Elding Whale Watching. He has been working with Elding for years and has had the opportunity to follow closely the discussion regarding whaling vs. whale watching and the sustainable aspect of it from aboard Elding’s boats. Sveinn has been leading Elding’s environmental projects for the past years that includes taking care of the company’s certification programs, such as Earth Check, Blue Flag and the Icelandic quality and environmental system Vakinn. Sveinn’s background comes from education as he has a degree in language teaching and worked in that field for few years.

Ari Trausti Guðmundsson

Member of Parliament and Chair

Icelandic Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region

Member of the Parliament, geophysicist and author Ari Trausti Guðmundsson has been a lecturer and writer in the fields of geology/geophysics, volcanology, glaciology, astronomy, environmental science and mountaineering, with over 50 published books, as well as writing poetry, short stories and novels. Educated as a geophysicist in Norway and Iceland, Ari Trausti worked as a consultant in geoscience, tourism, Arctic and environmental issues. He has hosted numerous radio and television programs and documentaries. Ari Trausti is noted as an avid mountaineer, Arctic/Antarctic traveller and contributor to numerous scientific exhibitions, visitors’ centres and museums. He was a candidate for the office of the President of Iceland in 2012. Currently, he is a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the Left-Green Party.

Bjorn Gunnarsson

Assistant Professor of Arctic Maritime Transportation & Logistics

Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL) at the Business School of Nord University in Bodo,

Dr. Bjorn Gunnarsson is an Associate Professor of Arctic Maritime Transportation & Logistics at the
Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL) at the Business School of Nord University in Bodo, Norway. Bjorn
received his BSc in geology from the University of Iceland and PhD in geochemistry from the Johns
Hopkins University, USA. Prior positions include Managing Director of the Centre for High North Logistics
in Norway, Academic Director of the School for Renewable Energy Science, Dean of the Faculty of
Natural Sciences at the University of Akureyri, and Director of the Environmental Research Institute of
the University of Iceland.

Þorsteinn Gunnarsson

Chair

Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON)

Þorsteinn Gunnarsson is Senior Adviser at the Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannis) since 2009 and is, among other things, responsible for Arctic cooperation in science and innovation. He served as the Rector of University of Akureyri from 1994- 2009 and was Science & Education Counsellor in the Icelandic Mission to the European Union, 1993-1994. In addition to his SAON leadership, Dr. Gunnarsson is the Icelandic representative in the Council of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), a member of the Advisory Board of the Arctic Circle and the Icelandic representative in the NordForsk Arctic Research Programme Committee.

Kirill Gurvich

Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology

Bodø University

Kirill Gurvich, is a 25 year-old Ph.D. candidate in Sociology in Bodø, Norway. He is originally from Arkhangelsk, Russia where he graduated with a bachelor degree in Sociology. In Bodø, he studied in the Bachelor’s program in Circumpolar Studies and Master’s program in Social Sciences with a specialization in Northern Development. Two years ago, he was an exchange student at the University of the Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada, where he studied polar geography. During the past 7 years, he has studied and researched the issues and challenges of the Arctic region, which has shaped his personal and scientific interests.

Dipak Gyawali

Academian, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology; & Chair,

Nepal Water Conservation Foundation

Pragya(Academician) of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and Chair of non-profit Nepal Water Conservation Foundation conducting interdisciplinary research at technology-society interface from perspectives of Cultural Theory. A hydroelectric power engineer and a political economist, he served as Nepal’s Minister of Water Resources in 2002/03. He has chaired or served in advisory boards and review missions of various international organizations including EU’s review of its water research between FP4 to FP6, UNESCO’s International Hydrological Program IHP-6, UNESCO IHE-Delft for its institutional aspects and course standards, Coca Cola’s  international environmental advisory board, US Pacific Northwest National Lab for its 4-volume state-of-the-art Human Choice and Climate Change, and management specialist to Myanmar’s Ayeyarwadi IRBM. He was a member of the panel of experts of the Mekong River Commission reviewing its Basin Development Plan, the World Bank’s Inspection Panel on Vishnugad-Pipalkoti HEP, and a PhD examiner in Oxford, Wageningen, Anna Universities and external PhD supervisor to students from Arizona, Kathmandu, Helsinki, Sydney universities. Currently he is on the technical advisory committee of UNESCO’s World Water Assessment Program, the scientific program committee of Stockholm International Water Institute, IDS Sussex’s STEPs Center as well as guest senior research scholar with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria.

Geir H. Haarde

Ambassador

Iceland

Ambassador Haarde is the Ambassador of Iceland presently serving in the Embassy of Iceland located in Washington, D.C. This embassy serves multiple countries in North and South America. Ambassador Haarde is the former Prime Minister of Iceland. Additionally, he was Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Finance, and served as a member of the Icelandic Parliament from 1987 through 2009. He is a former member of the IMF’s International Monetary and Financial Committee and served as a member and President of the Nordic Council. Ambassador Haarde earned Masters degrees from the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University.

Anders Haglund

PhD Student in History, Philosophy and Religious Studies

Umeå University

Anders Haglund is a PhD student in history at the Department of historical, philosophical and religious studies at Umeå University. In his research, Anders focus on Sami citizenship status, colonialism and public healthcare policy at regional level in northern Sweden 1860-1960.

Eva-Maria Hakola

Head of Development

Development Division of the Arts Promotion Center Finland

Eva-Maria Hakola has led the Development Division of the Arts Promotion Center Finland since the Agency's reform 2013. Acting as a Head of Development she is responsible for the development programs of the Agency, Regional Artists and Experts work and the information production of the Agency. The Head of Development is a member of the Steering Group. In earlier career Eva-Maria has worked in various positions in both the private and public sectors for leadership and development tasks and in addition, she has career as an entrepreneur. Eva-Maria has an extensive experience and networks in the field of arts and culture development and education in Finland as well as internationally. Eva-Maria Hakola completed her Master´s Degree in Art at the University of Art and Design (now Aalto University), and she has also bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design. In addition, Hakola has carried out studies in several educational programmes e.g. administrative science, leadership and project management as well as education and technology in different universities in Finland. In addition to visual arts Eva-Maria´s favorite hobby is trekking with Icelandic horses.

Pétur Halldórsson

Chair

Ungir Umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association)

Pétur Halldórsson is the chair of Ungir umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association) and a board member of Landvernd, Iceland’s largest environmental NGO. His main focus is environmental protection and sustainability but previosly he initiated a research project in Iceland on the Common Loon (Gavia immer). Pétur has been active in preparations for the global Arctic Youth Network and believes that the global community can only become sustainable when people of different regions and cultures have an equal opportunity to facilitate progress in environmental- and social issues, in the Arctic as well as globally.

Jeanette Hammer Andersen

Biotech North incubator

Research collaboration with the Biotech industry Jeanette Hammer Andersen is head of Marbio, an analytical platform for natural product drug discovery. Marbio has experience in screening extract library of natural product origin, both terrestrial and marine organisms and has successfully identified several novel bioactive compounds. Andersen is also a Board Member of Biotech North, a cluster organization located in Tromsø, Norway, which serves the biotechnology and biomarine sectors in the entire northern portion of the country. Cluster organizations contribute to increased value creation in trade and industry by helping to develop expertise and encouraging collaboration within the areas of innovation and internationalization.

Aleqa Hammond

Member

Danish Parliament

As former party leader (2003-2014) for the Siumut party of Greenland, minister for foreign and financial affairs as well as chairman of Greenland’s Government, Aleqa Hammond has had significant experience from politics in Greenland. She is now a member of the Danish Parliament. Ms. Hammond also has extensive experience from work in the tourism sector as board member in South Greenland Tourism from 2003-2005 as well as Great Greenland from 2004-2005. In addition she was commissioner of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (1999-2002) as well as regional coordinator for Greenland Tourism from 1990 to 1993.

Rúni Hansen

Chairman of the Board

BAKKAFROST

Apart from being Chairman of the Board at Bakkafrost, Mr. Hansen is also executive chairman of the industry company Tjaldur in the Faroe Islands. Educated in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School and Lancaster University Management School, Mr. Hansen has held several key positions in the international oil and gas industry. Prior to joining Bakkafrost, Mr. Hansen was head of Statoil’s Arctic Unit and a member of Statoil's Worldwide Exploration Management Team. For a number of years, he was the Country Manager for Statoil, in charge of operations in the Faroes and Greenland, including operated drilling campaigns.

Natalie Hanson

Executive Director

Nuvista

Natalie Hanson was born and raised in Bethel, Alaska. Now, as the Executive Director of Nuvista, her primary focus is to help alleviate the burden of energy costs in her home region of Alaska, the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Natalie has a Bachelor’s degree in Hydrology from Boise State University and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Pia Hansson

Director

Institute of International Affairs, the Centre for Small States Studies, the Centre for Arctic Policy Studies and Höfði Reykjavik Peace Centre

Pia Hansson is the Director of the Institute of International Affairs and its three centres: the Centre for Small States Studies, the Centre for Arctic Policy Studies and Höfði Reykjavik Peace Centre. Pia holds a B.A. degree in Communication from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. degree in International Relations from the University of Iceland. She also pursued an M.F.A. programme in Television Production at the City University of New York. For years Pia worked as a Broadcasting Producer and Director, both in Iceland and abroad, until she became the Media Specialist at the Embassy of the United States in Iceland from 2002-2006. In the winter of 2007-8 Pia served as the Head Spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), a Nordic ceasefire monitoring mission in Sri Lanka, on behalf of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Nagruk Harcharek

UIC Science General Manager

Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, USA

Nagruk Harcharek , an Alaskan Native, and was born and raised in Utqiagvik, AK. He grew up as a hunter and whaler learning all of the values that have made him who he is today. After graduation from Barrow High School, he attended Honolulu Community College and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University where he attained his Associates in Science and Bachelors of Science and Commercial Pilot Certificates. He worked as a commercial pilot for 3 years in Western, AK before moving back home to work for UIC Science, LLC as a project Manager. He is now the Director of Arctic Development and VP of UIC Lands. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with his wife, Lisa, flying his own plane, and piloting the family boat to continue his hunting and is passing on that valuable knowledge to his 3 children.

Svend Hardenberg

Founder & Chairman

Greenland Invest

Svend Hardenberg is the chairman of Greenland Invest, a project development company operating in Greenland. he's participating in a broad variety of sectors, such as: Renewable energy, mineral water, bulk water, aluminium production, crypto currency & block chain etc.

He's background is Airline, Utilities, Telecommunications, Consultancies, Municipal Leadership, Government Administration and are now a multiple start up entrepreneur.

He's all about infrastructure: As the CEO of the national energy company he expanded one hydropower facility, commissioned two new ones and finalized a third one. He also implemented distant metering on all utilities (water, electricity and heating) in the whole country, as the first country in the world. As vice-chairman in the board of Tele Greenland he participated in the subsea datacable project, connecting Greenland to the rest of the world, and as Permanent Secretary at the Premier's Office he commissioned the new deep water port in Nuuk, to secure a more efficient shipping system in the North Atlantic.

Lassi Heininen

Professor of Arctic Politics

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland

Lassi Heininen is a Professor of Arctic Politics at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland (Finland). As a political scientist and an expert on International Relations, Geopolitics, Security, Environmental Politics and Arctic Studies, Prof. Heininen directs IIASA’s Arctic Futures Initiative (AFI), where he leads and coordinates the comparative study, analysis and synthesis of national strategies of Arctic states and observer nations, as well as strategies/policies and programs of the Arctic Council and its Working Groups, and AC Chairmanship programs. Among his other academic positions are Adjunct professor (Docent) at University of Oulu (Finland) and Trent University (Ontario, Canada), Visiting Professor at University of Akureyri (Iceland), Director of International Summer School in Karelia at Petrozavodsk State University (Russia).

Katharina Heinrich

MA Polar Law Candidate

University of Akureyri

Katharina Heinrich is an MA Polar Law candidate at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. She is currently on the West Nordic Studies exchange programme at Nord University in Bodø. She holds a BSc in Management and Economics from the Technical University of Chemnitz. She worked as an intern in the climate office of the Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.

Timothy Heleniak

Senior Research Fellow

Nordregio, Stockholm

Timothy Heleniak is a Senior Research Fellow at Nordregio in Stockholm, Sweden. His areas of research are population change and regional development in the Arctic, migration into the Nordic countries, and regional development in Europe. He has researched and written extensively on migration and population change in the Arctic, Nordic countries, and Russia. He is the Principal Investigator of a project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, Arctic Social Sciences Program titled Polar Peoples: Past, Present, and Future (award number PLR-1418272). He previously worked at the U.S. Census Bureau, the World Bank, UNICEF, and George Washington University.

Erla Guðný Helgadóttir

Board Member

Ungir Umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association)

Erla Guðný Helgadóttir is a board member of Ungir umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association). Helga was among the participants of the Arctic Youth Summit in Rovaniemi. Erla Studies Glacial Geology and wants to further examine the impacts of climate change on glaciers. Erla believes we are obliged to protect wild areas from pollution and destruction for the sake of ecological diversity and the future generations who will hopefully be lucky enough to have a fair bit of wilderness left to enjoy.

Jaakko Henttonen

Special Adviser

Arctic Environment for the Finnish Foreign Ministry

Present position held as Special Adviser on the Arctic Environment for the Finnish Foreign Ministry since May 2018.

Prior working history includes positions as Fund Manager for the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at London/St. Petersburg 2006-17, Environmental Counsel at Finnish General Consulate in St Petersburg 2003-06, Principal Banker at EBRD St. Petersburg 2001-03 and Head of Unit for international projects unit at Finnish Ministry of the Environment 1991-2000.

Relevant experience includes also chairmanship at the ACAP 2009-12 and WG Chair for Obsolete Pesticides 2003-06.

Born 1951, M.Sc. in Eng. 1974 at Helsinki Technical University with postgraduate studies, Hon. Dr. by Kyiv University of Architecture and Construction 1998.

Victoria Herrmann

President, Managing Director

The Arctic Institute

Victoria Herrmann is the President and Managing Director of The Arctic Institute. In addition to managing the Institute and Board of Directors, her research and writing focus on climate change, community adaptation, human development, and resource economies, with a particular focus on Arctic oil and gas. She is a Gates Scholar at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, where she is pursuing a PhD in Political Geography of the Arctic.

Park Heung-kyeong

Ambassador for Arctic Affairs

Republic of Korea

Dec. 1997 - First Secretary, Korean Embassy in Libya

Dec. 2002 - First Secretary, Korean Embassy in the Commonwealth of Australia

Jun. - 2005 - Director, Environment Cooperation Division, International Economic Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT)

Feb. 2007 - Secondment to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)

Feb. 2009 - Secondment to the Secretariat of Green Growth Commission

Apr. 2010 - Director, Energy, Climate Change and Environment Division, International Economic Affairs Bureau, MOFAT

Aug. - 2012 - Minister, Korean Embassy in the State of Israel

Mar. - 2015 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Qatar

Sep. 2018 - Government Representative for Arctic Affairs

Larry Hinzman

President, International Arctic Science Committee; & Vice-Chancellor for Research

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Larry Hinzman is President of the International Arctic Science Committee and Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks; he previously served as the Director of the International Arctic Research Center. Dr. Hinzman’s primary research interests involve permafrost hydrology. He has conducted hydrological and meteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic continuously for over 35 years while frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian and Canadian Arctic. He is strongly committed to facilitating national and international partnerships to advance our understanding of the Arctic system.

John Hirst

Co-Director

8Boxes

John Hirst is an English born artist, now living and working in Anchorage, Alaska, whose work has encompassed film, sound, performance, installation, and the written word. John’s practice has always focused on communities and their culture, and over the last 20 years he has worked in varied environments around the world; from sound art festivals in Russia, outdoor markets in China, to the classified pages of Craigslist and the slums of Haiti. 8Boxes is the most ambitious art project, in terms of both geography and time scale, that he has worked on, and is what brings him to the Arctic Assembly.

Kristinn Hjálmarsson

Managing Director

Icelandic Sustainable Fisheries ehf

Mr. Kristinn Hjálmarsson has been the Managing Director of Icelandic Sustainable Fisheries ehf since 2014 and is one of the company's original board members and founders, back in 2012. Icelandic Sustainable Fisheries is owned by 52 companies in fisheries, fish processing, food productions, sales and marketing of Icelandic seafood around the world. Kristinn has been working on applying for and maintaining sustainability certifications for nearly all Icelandic fishing activities, according to a globally recognized standard for sustainability.

Lara Wilhelmine Hoffmann

Coctoral candidate

University of Akureyri

Lara Wilhelmine Hoffmann is a doctoral candidate at the University of Akureyri.

Her doctoral research is part of the research project 'Inclusive Societies: The integration of immigrants in Iceland' (2018 -2021), supported by The Icelandic Centre for Research (RANNIS). Lara has a research MA in Art Studies from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and a Bachelor in Book Studies and Art History from Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Her research focuses on the relation of multilingual art and creative work to the inclusion of immigrants in Iceland.

Eero Hokkanen

Communications Manager

Arctia Ltd.

Arctia Ltd. is a Finnish shipowner and operator of eight icebreakers. Mr. Hokkanen is in charge of Arctia’s internal and external communications as well as stakeholder relations. He reports to President and CEO Tero Vauraste, and aids him in international cooperation, including the Arctic Economic Council (AEC).   Eero has a solid background in Arctic policy and sustainable business development. He has worked at the Finnish Embassy in Oslo as a Political Officer, at the Finland Chamber of Commerce as Advisor to the CEO, and most recently as Expert for Team Arctic Finland, a dedicated group of companies delivering total solution concepts in extreme and challenging conditions.

Gwen Pamela Holdmann

Founder & Director

Alaska Center for Energy and Power

Gwen is the founder and Director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, an applied energy research program based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks which focuses on community- scale fossil and renewable/alternative energy technologies. Specific areas of emphasis include power systems integration for microgrids, hydrokinetic energy, low temperature geothermal, and diesel efficiency. Prior to joining the University of Alaska, Gwen worked in the private sector as a design engineer and project manager, including the design and construction of the only operating geothermal power plant in Alaska at Chena Hot Springs. This project received several awards including a R&D 100 award (R&D Magazine) and Project of the Year in the Renewable Energy Category (Power Engineering Magazine). Gwen has been inducted into the Alaska Innovator’s Hall of Fame, and was selected as a member of Alaska’s Top Forty Under 40. In 2015-16, she served as a Fulbright Scholar as part of the Arctic Fulbright Initiative. Gwen lives in an off-grid home with her family and 35 dogs, using a combination of solar, wind, battery storage, diesel generation, and wood heat. She has competed in the Yukon Quest and Iditarod sleddog races.

John Holdren

Professor of Environmental Science & Policy; & Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; & Co-Director of the Arctic Innovation Initiative

Harvard Kennedy School of Government

John Holdren is Co-Director of the Arctic Innovation Initiative at Harvard. From January 2009 to January 2017, he was President Obama’s Science Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). His responsibilities included advising on all S&T issues bearing on the President’s agenda (including economic competitiveness and job creation, biomedicine and public health, energy and climate change, the oceans and the Arctic, and more); overseeing interagency S&T programs; developing initiatives in STEM education; advancing scientific integrity and openness; and representing the U.S. government in interactions with the U.S. and global science and engineering communities.

Arne O. Holm

Editor in chief

High North News

Special advisor, High North Center, Nord University and Chief Editor, High North News
Arne Holm is a former director of Arctic Think Tank, now working as Special Advisor at the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University. He is also the Chief Editor of High North News. Holm has been working with High North issues for several years.

Nong Hong

Executive Director & Senior Fellow

Institute for China-America Studies

Nong Hong: Executive Director and Senior Fellow of Institute for China-America Studies. Dr. Hong holds a PhD of interdisciplinary study of international law and international relations from the University of Alberta, Canada. She is concurrently a research fellow with the China Institute, University of Alberta, and the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, China. Recent publications include China's Interests in the Arctic: Opportunities & Challenges: Examining the implications of China's Arctic policy white paper (2018) and the book Maritime Order and the Law in East Asia (Routledge, 2018, co-edited with Gordon Houlden).

Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv

Professor

University of Akureyri, Critical Peace and Conflict Studies, Centre for Peace Studies, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Dr. Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv is Professor of Critical Peace and Conflict Studies at the Centre for Peace Studies at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She is also the Nansen Professor 2017-2018 at the University of Akureyri. Professor Hoogensen Gjørv specializes in security studies and international relations theory, focusing on feminist and gender security studies theory, human security, security in the Arctic, civil-military interaction (in Arctic as well as in large scale conflict settings), and civilian agency

Alice Horton

Ecotoxicologist

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Alice is an ecotoxicologist with an expertise in microplastic pollution. Her research focusses particularly on the sources, fate and ecological effects of microplastics within the freshwater environment. She has published studies identifying microplastics in UK rivers and freshwater fish, in addition to carrying out studies on the ecological effects of microplastic pollution on freshwater invertebrates. In addition to her research, she is a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow funded to develop the UK Microplastics Network – an interdisciplinary network aimed at engaging stakeholders with the state-of-the-art academic research on microplastics, leading to improved sharing of knowledge and better-informed decision-making.

Ingrid Hunstad

Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV)

Dr. Ingrid Hunstad is a researcher at INGV Upper Atmosphere Physics Unit, where she deals with installation and management of the INGV GNSS network in the Arctic (Longyearbyen and Ny Ålesund, Svalbard), and Antarctica (Italian base. Italian-French base, South African base). She also deals with the relevant Space Weather data (scintillation and TEC), stored and made available by means of dedicated ICT infrastructures accessible to the scientific community on the web (www.eswu.it) . In this frame, she is the training leader for the deployment, management and interoperability of the GNSS receivers for TEC and scintillation monitoring coordinated by INGV.

Jussi Huotari

Researcher & PhD Candidate

Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki

Jussi Huotari is a researcher and PhD Candidate at Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki, Finland. His fields of interests are International Relations (IR), Arctic politics, Russian studies, energy politics, security politics and geopolitics. He is also a co-coordinator of NRF-Uarctic joint thematic network on geopolitics and security.  

Verena Gisela Huppert

Ph.D. Fellow

Aalborg University

Verena Gisela Huppert is a Ph.D. fellow at Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research focus is on labour market issues in the Arctic, with a special focus on strategies and measures of recruitment and retention of labour. The Ph.D. project is a collaboration between Aalborg University, Arctic Consensus, Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq, and the Greenland Business Association.

Verena was born and raised in the South of Germany, and has a B.A. in Languages and Literature from Goethe University, Frankfurt (2014), and a M.A. in Arctic Studies and Migration from Aalborg University (2016). She lives and works in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk.

Fiona Hyslop

Cabinet Secretary

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, Scottish Government

Fiona Hyslop was born in Ayrshire in 1964 and spent her early years in England before returning to Ayrshire. She graduated from Glasgow University with an MA (Hons) in Economic History and Sociology. She completed a post graduate Diploma in Industrial Administration at the Scottish College of Textiles, before moving to Edinburgh to join the financial services company Standard Life. Elected in the first session of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 she has been returned as the Constituency MSP for Linlithgow since 2011. She was appointed as Cabinet Secretary of Education and Lifelong Learning in 2007 and was responsible for abolishing backend university tuition fees. She has had responsibility for culture and external affairs since 2009 and is currently the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs.

Kenneth Hans Otto Høegh

Deputy Minister for Foreign affairs

Government of Greenland

Mr. Kenneth Hans Otto Høegh

Deputy Minister for Foreign affairs

Government of Greenland

2018: Deputy Minister,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Greenland

2014 –2017: Deputy CEO/Acting CEO,

Kujalleq Municipality (Greenland),

2013 – 2014:  Country representative for a Danish INGO in Hanoi, Vietnam.

2009 -2013: Senior Advisor,

Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA),

Stationed in Bangladesh

2000 -2009: Chief Advisor, agricultural & rural development in S-Greenland

Greenland Homerule Government, 

Kenneth has been involved in a number of boards and committees, from 2014-18 as the Chairman of Visit Greenland, the National Tourist Board of Greenland.

Morten Hørmann

Consultant

COWI A/S

Morten Hørmann is a consultant at COWI A/S, a consultant group within engineering, economics, and environmental science. Morten specialises in affordability studies, the economics of competition law and econometrics, and has for a long time been involved in quantitative analyses to support Danish and European energy and climate policy debate. In the project Renewable Energy Supply, Morten developed a guide to development of renewable energy solutions in sparsely populated areas. He has also been involved in the EWA – Energy in the West Arctic project and will attend the session to present the findings.

Emmi Ikonen

Researcher

Nord University

Emmi Ikonen holds a researcher position at the High North Center at Nord University Business School in Northern Norway. She is currently working with the MARPART and MAREC projects, focusing on developing international R&D partnership in maritime safety and security in the Arctic.

Before moving to Norway, Ikonen worked for the Finnish Border Guard Headquarters in Helsinki with Arctic search and rescue related research.

Jón Haukur Ingimundarson

Senior Scientist, Stefansson Arctic Institute; & Associate Professor of Anthropology & Arctic studies

University of Akureyri

Jón Haukur Ingimundarson is Senior Scientist at the Stefansson Arctic Institute and Associate Professor of anthropology and Arctic studies at the University of Akureyri. His research interests include the political ecology of medieval Iceland, as well as present-day Arctic human development, agriculture, food security and impacts of globalization and climate change. He is co-leader of the project Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures, research partner in the REXSAC Nordic Centre of Excellence and the EU-Horizon 2020 project NUNATARYUK, and Co-PI of the project Reflections of Change: The Natural World in Literary and Historical Sources from Iceland ca. AD 800 to 1800.

Mattijusi Iyaituk

Hunter & Abstract Artist

Mattijusi Iyaituk is from Ivujivik, Nunavik, Canada and started carving at the age of 14. His traditionally based, abstract contemporary works can be found in many renowned museums around the world. He has also taught master classes in Siberia, China, France and the United States. In May 2018 he was appointed to the “Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec”.

M Jackson

Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Oregon; & Fulbright-NSF Arctic Research Scholar

University of Iceland

M Jackson is a geographer, adventurer, 2018 TED Fellow, and 2017 National Geographic Society Emerging Explorer. M earned a doctorate from the University of Oregon in geography and glaciology, where she examined how climate change transformed people and glacier communities in Iceland. M is a veteran four-time U.S. Fulbright Scholar, serves as an Arctic Expert for the National Geographic Society, and has worked for over a decade in the Arctic chronicling climate change and communities. Her 2015 memoir While Glaciers Slept: weaves together the parallel stories of what happens when the climates of a family and a planet change. Her newest book, The Secret Lives of Glaciers, (2018) explores the human stories of glacier change in Iceland. 

Bent-Ove Jamtli

General director

Joint Rescue Coordination Center of North Norway

Bent-Ove Jamtli is the general director of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre North-Norway, located in Bodø. He has also worked as a Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator (SMC) at JRCC North-Norway in 1996‒2000. Bent-Ove has a background in the Norwegian Air Force as a Fighter Controller, and several staff and command positions in Norway. His extensive experience also consists of NATO staff and command positions in Rammstein, Germany and Kabul, Afghanistan, and he has worked as an UN Observer in UNTSO, Lebanon and Syria. Bent-Ove’s formal education includes studies at the Norwegian Air Force Academy, Norwegian Forces Staff College and the Norwegian Defense University College. He also holds a Master’s degree in Political Science.

Shridhar Jawak

Remote Sensing Officer

SIOS

Shridhar Jawak is the remote sensing officer of the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS). He has been working with the development and implementation of new methods for rapid geo-information extraction of remote sensing data in Polar regions at the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, India. His tasks at SIOS Knowledge Centre include to inform and advise on the opportunities that remote sensing data offer to Earth System Science researchers, and to bring together product developers and users to improve the usability of satellite data.

Jocelyn Joe-Strack

Consultant

Subarctic Research & Strategy Self-Governing, First Nation Land Planning in Yukon, Canada

Jocelyn Joe-Strack is a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation located in the Yukon Territory of northwestern Canada. She was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, and lives there today. Jocelyn holds a BSc in biochemistry and microbiology and MSc in Geography. Her PhD work with the University of Saskatchewan is in conjunction with her role as a consultant to develop a Settlement Land Use Plan with her First Nation. From this experience, Jocelyn intends to contribute to advancements in value-driven decision-

making, Indigenous-led reconciliation and intergenerational leadership in self-determination.

Nils Arne Johnsen

Director

Regional Business Development, Troms County Council

Nils Arne Johnsen was for five years the Ramboll Group’s international Arctic Market Director. He now is Director Industry & Regional Development at Troms County in Norway. Johnsen is a native Arctic resident and has 25 years’ of experience in transport, regional planning and management consulting. He has been an active practitioner in strategy development, authority management and stakeholder engagement for large industrial or transportation projects in the Arctic, and for collaboration between Academia and Business. Johnsen is an experienced moderator and speaker on Arctic issues.

Constance Johnson

PhD Candidate at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security; & Scholar

Wollongong Global Challenges

Constance Johnson is a Ph.D. candidate at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources & Security and a University of Wollongong Global Challenges Scholar. She is also a former legal adviser on Antarctic and law of the sea issues to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and former manager of WWF’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean initiative.

Timo Jokela

Professor

Art education & applied visual arts, University of Lapland

Timo Jokela is a professor  of art education and applied visual arts in University of Lapland. He is former dean of the Faculty of Art and Design (2009-2017). Currently  he is  leader of University of Arctic’s thematic network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design and Lapland’s University Consortium’s Institution for Northern Culture. Jokela  has been responsible for several international and regional development and  research projects in the field of  art and design. Jokela works actively as an environmental artist and community artist, often using natural materials and the cultural heritage of the North and the Arctic as a starting point for his works.  He is leaders of the Arctic Arts Summit 2018.

Guðni Jóhannesson

Director General

National Energy Authority, Iceland

Guðni Jóhannesson has been in his current position since January 2008 when he was appointed Director General for the National Energy Authority (NEA) by then Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, Össur Skarphéðinsson.

NEA is a government agency under the Ministry of Industry and Innovation. Its main responsibilities have been to advise the Government of Iceland on energy issues and related topics, promote energy research and administrate development and exploitation of the energy resources.

At present he is also an affiliated professor at KTH, the chair of IPGT the international Partnership for Geothermal Technology and the leading person for Geothermal ERANET a European project for coordinating funding geothermal research and knowledge base in European countries.

Prior to his current position, Jóhannesson had since 1992 acted as full professor and the leader of the Division for Building Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden.

In the years 1982-1990 Jóhannesson ran his own consultancy in building physics in Reykjavik. In 1982 received his Ph.D. in Building Technologies at the University of Lund, Sweden, where he also served as an associate professor (docent).

Lára Jóhannsdóttir

Professor, School of Business, University of Iceland; & Scholar

Fulbright Arctic Initiative

Lára Jóhannsdóttir is a Professor within the Environment and Natural Resources graduate program, situated at the School of Business, University of Iceland (UI) and a Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar. She is a board member of the Institute for Business Research (UI), the UI Research fund, the UI sustainability and environmental committee and heads the School of Social Sciences evaluation committee. Lára is a board member of an occupational pension fund. She has a PhD degree in Business, MBA degree in Global Management (honors), and BSc in Business Administration, and is a former Quality and Office Manager from the insurance sector.

Halldór Jóhannsson

Executive Director

Arctic Portal

Halldór Jóhannsson is the executive director of the Arctic Portal, Iceland - the Gateway to Arctic information and data. Jóhannsson has years of experience in communication, outreach, data management and policy in and around the Arctic. He is a member of numerous committees and projects on Arctic issues, ranging from information and data management, planning and environmental issues to economic development and policy including: Sustainable Arctic Observation Networks (SAON), the Iceland Arctic Cooperation Network, the EU Arctic Information Centre, the University of the Arctic, and the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee and the International Permafrost Association. He is a council member of the European Polar Board, Vice-Chair of the China-Iceland Aurora Observatory Iceland, and an EU-PolarNet policy advisory board member.

Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir

Associate Professor

Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland

Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland.

Her research includes Remote Sensing of Natural Hazards, linking satellite imagery with airborne data and historical sources on Environmental Change. She participated in sea-ice expeditions to the Greenland Sea and Arctic Ocean, and carried out fieldwork in various places in Iceland.

She studied Geography at the University of Iceland, Polar Studies at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, and sea-ice climatology at the same university. During that time, she worked and collected data at institutes in Denmark, Norway and Colorado, United States.

Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir

Professor

Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Iceland

Ingibjörg Svala Jónsdóttir has a PhD in plant ecology at Lund University, Sweden. She has worked as a Professor at the University in Gothenburg, Sweden, the University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS and the Agricultural University of Iceland. In 2006-2009 she was a project leader and director of the Land Restoration Training program, now UNU-LRT. Now she is a Professor at the University of Iceland (since 2009) and an Adjunct Professor at the University Centre in Svalbard. Her research interest is Arctic plant and ecosystem ecology, plant-herbivore interactions, land use change and impacts of climate change.

Frigg Jørgensen

Executive director

Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO)

Frigg Jørgensen is the executive director of the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO). Frigg has worked in Arctic tourism for 25 years, included positions as manager for the local tourist office and adviser to the Governor of Svalbard. She has been involved in developing tourism policies and framework, as well as strategies and industry development. Frigg has been involved in many projects aiming at ensuring sustainable development and activities, especially related to environmental protection, community relations and safe operations. Together with the Icelandic Coast Guard, AECO initiated the first Joint Arctic SAR workshop and TTX in 2016. Frigg Jørgensen is in charge of AECO’s initiatives and engagements related to SAR.

Pavel Kabat

Director General & Chief Executive Officer

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Professor Kabat is Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

The World Meteorological Organization has appointed Pavel Kabat as its first Chief Scientist and Research Director (from 1 September 2018). He will lead the overall strategic direction of the WMO science, and its underlying research activities,

He is full professor of Earth System Science at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, founding chair and director of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts Institute for Integrated Research on the Wadden Sea Region (the Wadden Academy), a member of the Leadership Council for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and co-founder of the high-level Alpbach – Laxenburg Group. Trained as a mathematician and hydrologist, Professor Kabat’s almost-30-year research career has covered earth system science and global change, with a specific focus on land-atmosphere interactions, climate hydrology, the water cycle, and water resources. He is an author and coauthor of over 300 refereed publications, member of international editorial boards, and (co)editor of numerous special issues of peer-reviewed international journals.

Eeva-Maija Kakko

Coordinator

Arctic Youth Summit

Eeva-Maija Kakko is working for WWF Finland as a coordinator for the Arctic Youth Summit which is organized in Rovaniemi, Finland right before the Arctic Circle. Eeva-Maija is finishing her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science in the University of Helsinki. During her studies Eeva-Maija has specialized in Environmental Politics and Sustainable Development, and she has also studied Global Politics in the University of Calgary. Eeva-Maija has been a member of WWF Youth Team Finland for 2,5 years and has participated in international youth projects for example in Austria and Alaska. Eeva-Maija is enthusiastic about encouraging the youth to get involved in decision-making and creating space for the youth to share their visions.

Nicole Kanayurak

Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar; Assistant to the Director

North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management

Nicole Kanayurak, Kannik, is Inupiaq from Utqiaġvik, Alaska.  Nicole works on wildlife management at the North Slope Borough.  Prior to returning to Utqiaġvik at the beginning of this year, Nicole conducted a fellowship in Washington D.C. with the National Marine Fisheries Service in International Fisheries. Nicole is interested in how the newly installed telecommunications infrastructure on the North Slope could foster food security and sustainable economies.  She has research experience in living marine resource governance across scales. Nicole enjoys engaging in Indigenous co-management of natural resources in the Arctic. Recently she has been involved in developing Inuit polar bear co-management. Her advocacy work has brought her to serve as a representative for Inuit youth and involved in addressing increased arctic activity.  

Kimmo Kanto

Director

Innovation Funding Agency Business, Finland

Director at Innovation Funding Agency Business Finland. Works daily to enable companies to grow internationally and create world-class business ecosystems and a competitive business environment for Finland. Responsible for coordination of agency activities in Artic theme. Head of Finnish Delegation to European Space Agency Council. Member of National Space Committee and Arctic Advisory Board. Initiator of National New Space Economy –programme. Before joining innovation funding agency he worked in geospatial industry where he utilized space based infrastructure to derive new value added services for telecom, forestry, agriculture and maritime industries. He has studied Artic Geophysics in University of Oulu (M.Sc.), University of Helsinki and at UNIS in Svalbard. He has participated FINNARP 2000 Finnish Antarctic Expedition.

Anne Lise Kappel

Head of Department of Economic and Business

lisimatusarfik, University of Greenland

Anne Lise Kappel is Head of Department of Economic and Business by Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland. Anne Lise Kappel has a wide business career in leading positions both in public and private business. Her experience includes 10 years as self-employed in business consultancy. At Ilisimatusarfik she has started the education of BA in business economy in Greenland and diploma courses. She is member of different business networks in Greenland and Denmark. In research Anne Lise Kappel has focus on entrepreneurship in remote areas, the framework conditions influence on entrepreneurship and how to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, especially among youngsters.

Liisa Kauppila

PhD Candidate

University of Turku

Liisa Kauppila is a PhD Candidate from the University of Turku, Finland. Drawing from her academic background in Futures Studies, East Asian Studies and Politics and History, Liisa studies rising China’s role in processes of regionalisation in the High North. Over the years, she has been working in various China and/or futures research related posts both in China and Finland. Furthermore, she has conducted fieldwork and studied Chinese intensively in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her major academic interests include China’s political economy and global resource quest, as well as experimental methodology of futures studies.

Vincent Charles Keating

Associate Professor

Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark

Vincent Charles Keating is an associate professor in the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark. He holds a BA in Economics from Dalhousie University, an MSc in Nationalism Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and a PhD in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. His research interests include problems of trust and legitimacy in international politics, the effects of the war on terror on the international human rights regime, and Russian ideological influence in the West.

Aili Keskitalo

President

Sami Parliament of Norway

Aili Keskitalo is a Norwegian Sami politician representing the Norwegian Sámi Association (NSR), and the current president of the Sami Parliament of Norway. She has a Master in Public Administration from Copenhagen Business School, in which she compared the school systems in Norway and Greenland. Keskitalo was the first Sámi President whose mother tongue was not Sámi but Norwegian. However, she speaks Northern Sami fluently.

Kevin C. Kiefer

Deputy Director

Marine Transportation Systems, USCG

Captain Kevin C. Kiefer serves as Deputy Director of the Coast Guard’s Marine Transportation Systems Directorate at Coast Guard Headquarters. He is responsible for a wide variety of navigation safety and security functions including Waterways Management, Aids to Navigation, Domestic and Polar Ice Operations, Coastal and Marine Planning, Permitting for Bridges, and Arctic Programs. Previously, he was Chief of Staff for the First District in Boston, Massachusetts overseeing all Coast Guard missions across eight Northeast states. He also served as Coast Guard Sector Commander of Maryland/National Capitol Region responsible for maritime safety, security and environmental protection in the State of Maryland and the Washington, DC area.

Lene Kielsen Holm

Research Scientist and Project Leader

Climate and Society Research Group at the Greenland Climate Research Centre

Lene Kielsen Holm is Research Scientist and Project Leader in the Climate and Society Research Group at the Greenland Climate Research Centre. She is an anthropologist who has worked on environmental and Indigenous Peoples issues for the past 20 years and has lead several projects significant to the Inuit in Greenland and other Inuit regions of the Arctic. She has been advocating for the inclusion of the Indigenous Peoples knowledge in research throughout the Arctic.

Takashi Kikuchi

Deputy Director

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan

Dr. Takashi Kikuchi
Deputy Director of Institute of Arctic Climate and Environment (IACE) in
Japan Agency of Marine Earth Science and Tecnology (JAMSTEC)
Deputy Director of Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) Japan

Sir David King

Senior Strategy Adviser to the President of Rwanda

Rwanda

Professor Sir David King is an Affiliate Partner of SYSTEMIQ and Senior Strategy Adviser to the President of Rwanda. He was the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, 2000-2007, the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, 2013-2017, and Chair of Future Cities Catapult, 2012-2016. He has travelled widely to persuade all countries to take action on climate change. He initiated an in-depth risk analysis approach to climate change, working with the Governments of China and India in particular, and initiated a collaborative programme, now known as Mission Innovation, to create a £23bn pa research and development international exercise, which involves 22 countries and the EC, to deliver all technologies needed to complete the transition into a fossil-fuel-free world economy.

He was born in Durban, educated at St John’s College Johannesburg and at Witwatersrand University, graduating with an Honours degree in Chemistry and a PhD. He has received 23 Honorary Degrees from universities around the world.

As Govt Chief Scientific Adviser he raised the need for governments to act on climate change and was instrumental in creating the British £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. He created an in-depth futures process which advised government on a wide range of long term issues, from flooding to obesity. He was Member, the President’s Advisory Council , Rwanda, and Science Advisor to UBS, 2008-12 He served as Founding Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University, 2008 – 2012, Head of the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge University, 1993 – 2000, and Master of Downing College Cambridge 2005 – 2000.

He has published over 500 papers on surface science and catalysis and on science and policy, for which he has received many awards, medals etc. and 23 honorary degrees from universities around the world.

Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1991; Foreign Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002; knighted in 2003; made “Officier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’Honeur” in 2009 .

Elizabeth A. Kirk

Research Professor, International Environmental Law; & Co-director

Centre for Marine Ecological Resilience and Geological Resources

Elizabeth A Kirk is Research Professor of International Environmental Law, co-director of the Centre for Marine Ecological Resilience and Geological Resources and a member of the Sustainable Futures interdisciplinary steering committee at Nottingham Trent University. She is Chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, and sits on the steering committee of the World Commission on Environmental Law, the management board of the European Environmental Law Forum, the advisory board of the Journal of Water Law, and the editorial board of Brill Research Perspectives in the Law of the Sea. Professor Kirk’s research addresses the production of normativity in international environmental law and has been supported by grants from major funding bodies such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, and the EU.

Tomi Kivenjuuri

Senior Policy Advisor

Finnish Border Guard

Commander Tomi Kivenjuuri is currently working as a senior policy advisor in the international affairs unit at the Finnish Border Guard Headquarters. His responsibilities include coast guard cooperation in several international forums – in the Baltic Sea, in Europe and in the Arctic area. He is also leading the work of Arctic Coast Guard Forum's secretariat during the Finnish Chairmanship 2017 - 2019. He has worked in several coast guard duties during his career, such as chief of staff and chief of operations of coast guard district, chief of rescue coordination center, commanding officer at offshore patrol vessel and several other expert duties at Finnish Border Guard’s and coast guard district’s headquarters.

Kuupik Kleist

Former Premier of Greenland, Greenlandic Commissioner

Pikialasorsuaq Commission

Kuupik Kleist is a former Premier of Greenland and former member of both Parliament of Greenland and Danish Parliament. He has served as a member of the Executive Council of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and is now a consultant at ICC. He is currently one of the three Commissioners of the Pikialasorsuaq ( The North Water Polynya) Commission. In addition, he is also the chairman of the Board of Arctic Indigenous Film Fund and of the board of directors for Nuuk Imeq Brewery.

Elena Klyuchnikova

Leading Scientist

Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences

Elena Klyuchnikova, PhD (Economy), senior researcher, head of International Relations Division of Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INEP KSC RAS). Her scientific interests lie in the area of sustainable development: institutions of sustainable development; sustainable waste management; circular economy. Last projects she was (is) involved: Sustainable mining, Local communities and environmental regulation, Kolarctic CBC Programm, 2013-2015 (sustainability of local communities in the Arctic mining towns); Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic, Arctic Council, 2015-2017 (investigation of Barents region’s local and regional adaptation perspectives and future narratives development); Areas of intensive nature use in the Russian Arctic under climate change conditions: natural and social processes in the long term», RFBR, 2018-2021 (social aspects of climate change, future narratives for Murmansk region key industries development).

Anna K. Kukkonen

Doctoral Candidate

University of Helsinki

Anna K. Kukkonen is a Doctoral Candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Anna’s PhD research deals with climate change policy, comparing media debates on climate policy in six different countries: the US, Canada, Finland, France, Brazil, and India. Anna is part of the international research project Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks (COMPON) which analyzes cross-country differences in climate change responses and currently includes 20 countries. She has been involved in the COMPON project for almost 4 years, collaborating with teams around the world by sharing data, developing common research protocols and publishing in peer-reviewed journals.

Josh Komangapika

Alumnus

SOI 2018 Arctic Expedition

I am an Inuk from Iqaluit, Nunavut. I am currently in my 4th year of working towards my honors in Geography at Bishop's University. My interests include environmental justice, the effects of colonialism, climate change, natural resource development, contamination, and many other environmental topics as it relates to Inuit in the Arctic. In my professional life, I have been lucky to be able to work in climate change adaptation policy as well as working for Nunavut Parks and Special Places where I gained experience in heritage appreciation and community consultation processes. I try to be an advocate and role model for Inuit youth in Nunavut in many aspects of my life such as community involvement in my community or on campus.

Alexander Komissarov

Deputy Director

Department of Subsoil Use and Natural Resources of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, Yugra

From 1994 till 2002 he was a forestry officer of Novo-Agan forestry of Megion forestry establishment. From 2003 till 2004 he was an assistant of a forestry officer in Rezh rural forestry – branch of Federal State Institution "Sverdlovsk management of rural forests". In 2005 was assigned as a forestry master of Federal state institution "Khanty-Mansiysk forestry". From 2005 till 2006 had a position – head of fire-chemical station of type 2 of Federal State Institution "Khanty- Mansiysk forestry". From 2006 till 2007 was a leading expert of Forest Management, Monitoring and Forest Inventory Unit of the Department of Forestry of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. From 2007 till 2010 was a chief specialist of the Forest Protection, Forest Control and Supervision Unit of the Department of Forestry of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra. Since 2010 to the present time he has been Deputy Director of the Department of Subsoil use and Natural Resources of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug- Yugra.

Brenda Konar

Associate Dean of Research

College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Brenda Konar is the Associate Dean of Research at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks and is also the Research Representative on the Arctic Waterways Safety Committee. Dr. Konar’s responsibilities include ensuring that research done on the university’s 261’ Polar Class 5 Research Vessel, R/V Sikuliaq, can be accomplished without disrupting local community activities. She was recently the lead author of a Marine Policy manuscript entitled “Development of best practices for scientific research vessel operations in a changing Arctic: A case study for R/V Sikuliaq”. This document provides guidance to identify/communicate/mitigate potential impacts on, or time/area conflicts with, maritime subsistence harvest areas, activities, and resources.

Magda Kopczynska

Director

Waterborne Transport in Directorate-General for Mobility & Transport, European Commission

Director for Waterborne Transport in Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport within the European Commission, since 16/10/2016.

Her Directorate is responsible for the development and follow-up of the implementation of policies in support of logistics, maritime transport, ports, and inland navigation.

After joining the European Commission in 2006, to work in the Directorate-General for Internal Market and Services, she was appointed as the Head of Unit for Clean Transport, Urban Transport and Intelligent Transport Systems - between May 2009 and June 2011. In July 2011 she became Head of Unit dealing with Maritime Transport policy and Logistics, until taking up the post of Director for Sustainable and Innovative Mobility in DG MOVE on 1 May 2014 to 15 October 2016.

Clay Koplin

Chief Executive Officer

Cordova Electric Cooperative, Alaska

Clay Koplin is the Chief Executive Officer of Cordova Electric Cooperative located in Cordova, Alaska.  He is a professional engineer specializing in energy systems and how they integrate into the economic and social fabric of the communities they serve.  Clay enjoys community service and is currently serving as Mayor of Cordova and on the Electricity Advisory Committee to the US Department of Energy.  His hobbies include writing, hunting, fishing, and gardening.

Sanna Kopra

Postdoctoral Researcher

Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

Sanna Kopra is a postdoctoral researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. She studies what kind of normative transformation the rise of China will yield in international society, and how China will act out its great power responsibility in different policy areas and sectors. Her current research project funded by the Academy of Finland investigates the rise of China and normative transformation in the Arctic region. Kopra’s latest publications include China and Great Power Responsibility for Climate Change (Routledge, 2019) and a chapter in The GlobalArctic Handbook (Springer, 2019).

Ulrik Smith Korsholm

Director of Research

Danish Meteorological Institute

Ulrik Smith Korsholm is director of research at the Danish Meteorological Institute and holds a phd in meteorology from the University of Copenhagen. He is former head of Climate and Arctic research at DMI and has worked in the area of Arctic meteorology and climate since 2002. Research interests include numerical weather prediction in the Arctic, cloud microphysics, aerosol-cloud interactions, now-casting,  nuclear and volcanic emergency preparedness and dispersion modelling and short lived climate forcers in the Arctic.

Andrey Kovalov

Art lead

8Boxes

Andrey is director of Ivisible CO Ltd that provides activities in filmmaking, festival and concert programming, and music releases. Since 2012, he has collaborated with the International Kansk Videofestival which features screenings and architectural projects. He is author of long-term film project, “Fairytales of the World” (2012-2019) that combines film adaptations of folk stories of different nations and documentaries from those regions. He is a member of the League of Experimental Films ("Russia as a Phantasma" movie), organizer of the "travelling" Balkansk Film Festival – an independent screening experience in Balkan countries, and programming director of Jazz stages in Gardens Live Fest, Moscow Ring Festival, and Moscow Fireworks Festival.

R. Andreas Kraemer

Founder & Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute in Berlin; Chairman

Ecologic Institute, US

R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus of Ecologic Institute in Berlin, Germany, and Chairman (pro bono) of Ecologic Institute US in Washington DC, is currently Mercator Senior Fellow as well as Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam (Germany) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo (Ontario), non-executive Director of the Fundação Oceano Azul in Lisboa (Portugal), and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of German Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on the role and functions of science-based policy institutes or "think tanks" in theory and the practice in different political systems, the interactions among policy domains and international relations, and global governance on environment, resources, climate and energy.

Auðunn F. Kristinsson

Deputy Chief of Operation

Icelandic Coast Guard

Capt. Auðunn Kristinsson was born in Reykjavik 1972. Deputy Chief of Operation since 2012 and Director of ICG maritime operations since 2018. Served as navigation officer and vessel captain, navigation officer and rescue swimmer on helicopters / fixed wing aircrafts from 1992 – 2013.

Graduated from Reykjavik Navigation College 1994, Project Management and leadership from University of Iceland 2006 and MBA from Reykjavik University 2018). Throughout the years, Capt. Kristinsson has been appointed for service several committees and working groups related to Maritime and Arctic safety and security including Arctic Coast Guard Forum and Arctic Security Forces Roundtable and led project on field ICG assets renewal.

Sergey Krivovichev

Corresponding Member, Russian Academy of Sciences; Head

Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences

Professor Sergey Krivovichev graduated from St. Petersburg State University in 1994. From 2005 till 2017, he was a Chairman of Department of Crystallography, Institute of Earth Sciences, St. Petersburg State University. His scientific interests include mineralogy, crystallography, nuclear chemistry and technologies for radioactive waste disposal. In 2014-2016 he was a President of International Mineralogical Association. He is a Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of Turin Academy of Sciences. In 2017, he moved to the Arctic to serve as a Chairman of Kola Science Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 

Marianne Kroglund

Chair

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)

Marianne Kroglund is the Chair of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) – one of six Arctic Council working groups. Through groundbreaking assessments like the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and most recently the Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic, AMAP has been instrumental in improving our understanding of challenges and opportunities, identifying the state of our understanding, and bringing science to policy. Kroglund is a biologist by background and training. She works at the Norwegian Environment Agency, where she coordinates international work on Arctic related issues, including Arctic cooperation on climate change, pollution and the protection of natural resources.

Myriam Labbé

Ph. D. candidate

Université Laval, Quebec City

Myriam Labbé is a Ph.D. candidate from Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, under the supervision of Professors Alexander I. Culley and Warwick F. Vincent. Her project is on the genetic diversity of viruses in high latitude lakes, and she has participated in three sampling expeditions to the Canadian High Arctic, at the northern coast of Ellesmere Island. Her research interests include viral ecology, limnology and bio-informatics. She is also currently collaborating with the DOE-Joint Genome Institute (CA, USA) in order to develop new tools to study freshwater viruses through sequencing and metagenomics.

Éric Laliberté

Director General

Space Utilization for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA)

Eric Laliberté is Director General, Space Utilization for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). In this position, he is accountable for the overall planning, direction and general management of the Space Utilization Branch of the CSA, whose mandate is the end-to-end implementation of the Earth Observation, Satellite Communications and Space environment elements of the Canadian Space Program. Mr. Laliberté joined the CSA in 2001 where he held various positions the most recent being Director of Space Exploration Projects and Director General of Space Science and Technology. Eric holds a Masters in Engineering Management from the University of Sherbrooke and a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with an automation specialty from McGill University. He served 12 years as an Aerospace Engineering Officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force before joining the Canadian Space Agency. He was part of the Air Reserve for 10 years where he assumed the responsibilities of Quality Manager and of 438 Squadron’s Aircraft Maintenance Flight Commander.

Pierrick Lamontagne-Hallé

PhD candidate

Earth sciences at McGill University

Pierrick Lamontagne-Hallé is a PhD candidate in Earth sciences at McGill University. He is studying groundwater flow processes in permafrost regions both through modelling and field experiments. Graduated from Université Laval in 2015, his research has brought him in Peru, northern Quebec, Yukon and Nunavut. Since 2017, he is monitoring a small glacierized watershed in Kluane National Park (Yukon, Canada) to understand the effects of permafrost thaw on subarctic hydrology with a particular focus on winter processes. He is very interested in learning more on how to engage in transdisciplinary community-based research.

Hanna K. Lappalainen

PEEX, University of Helsinki

Hanna K. Lappalainen, PhD, Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) Program Secretary General at the University of Helsinki,
Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR). She is the lead editor of the PEEX Science Plan and has a long-term

experience of coordinating large-scale research projects. She has received NASA Goddar Team Award EOS-AURA satellite OMI-
Team in 2005 and an IEAS Silver medal in 2015. Lappalainen is a representative of Finland in the Sustainable SAON Data working

group, a national delegate of ISAC - The International Science Initiative in the Russian Arctic (ISIRA), IIASA AFI Core Group Member
and a SIOS Editorial Board Member. She obtained her PhD. from theUniversity of Helsinki, Finland and has been engaged in analysis
of the atmospheric BVOCs, and plant phenology.

Aaja Chemnitz Larsen

Member

Danish Parliament

Ms. Chemnitz Larsen has been a member of the Danish Parliament since June 2015 for the Greenlandic Inuit Ataqatigiit party. In 2004, she graduated with a cand.scient.adm degree from the University of Greenland and she has held several municipality positions in Greenland as well as a short spell as an Associate Expert at the UN in New York from 2006 to 2007.

Jan Rene Larsen

Deputy Executive Secretary

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP

Since 2011, Deputy Executive Secretary at the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). AMAP is a working group of the Arctic Council. Secretary of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON). The vision for SAON is a connected, collaborative, and comprehensive long-term pan-Arctic Observing System that serves societal needs. Involved in organising international conferences with an Arctic Perspective, including the Polar Data Forum and the Arctic Observing Summit. Involved in EU Horizon2020 projects (EU-PolarNet and INTERACT) and ESA’s Arctic Mission System Study as task lead. Biologist (environmental) from University of Copenhagen, Denmark with additional background in biostatistics and computer science.

Nina Larsson

Gordon alumnus; Glassco

Fellow; Gwich’in Nation citizen

Nina Larsson focuses on creating space that reflects Dene culture with innovative interpretation of how it can be expressed and contributes to excellence. Her work is informed by Gwich’in values and her experience abroad and in Canada. Nina is most known for offering and executing creative solutions to pressing issues and leadership initiatives. Her accomplishments include hosting the first Indigenous Circumpolar Women’s Gathering under Dene Nahjo, building a company delivering innovative heating systems to communities, and working to improve the territorial government’s early childhood development programs. She was a Jane Glassco Northern Fellow, currently is the GNWT Senior Advisor, ECD.

Kirsi Latola

Research Coordinator

Thule Institute, University of Oulu

Over the past ten years, Kirsi Latola has worked as a research coordinator at the Thule Institute at the University of Oulu and managed several national and international projects on research, knowledge sharing including organising several international events and graduate education. She has managed the University of the Arctic (UArctic) Thematic Networks strategic area since 2005 and is now acting as a Director of Thematic Networks. Kirsi is currently acting as a chair of the European Polar Board and Thule Institute’s representative in the EPB.

Kári Fannar Lárusson

Programme Manager

CAFF

Kári Fannar Lárusson is programme manager for CAFF the biodiversity working group of the Arctic Council. Kári was involved in the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment and the Actions for Arctic biodiversity: implementing the recommendations from the ABA, which provide a basis to inform and guide future Arctic Council work on biodiversity. Kári is also closely involved in the implementation of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), which is working to facilitate more rapid detection, communication and responses to the significant biodiversity-related trends and pressures affecting the circumpolar world. Kári has a broad range of experience at national and international levels related to biodiversity conservation and policy.

Alison LeClaire

Senior Arctic Official

Global Affairs Canada

Alison LeClaire joined Global Affairs Canada in 1987. Her professional experience since then includes overseas assignments in Brazil, Sweden and, most recently, in Geneva as Canada’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations at Geneva. She worked on environmental issues for three years early in her foreign service career, including two years on the Arctic Environment Protection Strategy (AEPS), just prior to the creation of the Arctic Council. Ms. LeClaire has worked in a variety of areas in Global Affairs, including bilateral relations with China and Mongolia, policy planning, human resource management, and corporate services.

Paula Lehtomäki

State Secretary

Prime Minister’s Office, Chair of Finland’s Arctic Advisory Board

Ms Paula Lehtomäki (born 1972) has held the position of State Secretary to Prime Minister Juha Sipilä at the Prime Minister's Office since July 2015. As State Secretary, she directs the functions of the Prime Minister’s Office, assists Prime Minister Sipilä in the implementation of the Government Programme and is responsible for cooperation with the ministries. Previously, Lehtomäki has been a member of the Finnish Government serving as Minister of the Environment in 2007-2011 and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development in 2003-2007. She was Member of Parliament representing the Centre Party of Finland from 1999 to 2015. Ms Lehtomäki has held a number of positions of trust, including the Deputy Party Leader of the Centre Party of Finland and Chair of the Board of the Finland-Russia Society. Lehtomäki has been awarded the decoration of the Commander of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. Lehtomäki holds the degree of Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration and Bachelor of Social Sciences. She is married with three children.

Jean Lemire

Envoy

Climate change, Northern and Arctic affairs, Government of Québec

A biologist by training and renowned science communicator, Jean Lemire has conducted work on climate change and biodiversity that has led to major scientific missions. In 2001, he converted a large oceanographic schooner into a scientific research platform and production studio that took him across the world’s oceans to raise awareness about key environmental issues. In 2012, following missions to the Arctic (2002) and Antarctica (2005-2006), he and his crew, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, began the 1000 Days for the Planet series, involving a three-year world expedition to examine the state of the planet’s biodiversity. In association with the Sedna Foundation, he has also designed many instructional programs that have become references over the years in the field of education. Jean Lemire was appointed Envoy for Climate change, Northern and Arctic Affairs by the Government of Québec in September 2017, thus becoming the first envoy in the history of Québec diplomacy.

Hanna Lempinen

Post-doctoral Researcher

University of Helsinki

Dr. Hanna Lempinen is a Postdoctoral Research at the Aleksanteri Institute and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science at the University of Helsinki and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland. Lempinen’s research builds on environmental sociology, social impact assessment literature and sustainability studies in developing novel approaches to understanding the intertwinements of energy and society at large. Her forthcoming bookArctic Energy and Social Sustainability: Societal Dimensions of Energy in the North (Palgrave 2018) focuses on societal aspects of the Arctic energy concern.

Christopher Len

Senior Research Fellow

Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore

Dr. Christopher Len is a Senior Research Fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore. His research focuses on Asian energy and maritime security issues, regional infrastructure connectivity, as well as the growing political and economic linkages between the various Asian sub-regions. He is also interested in the Arctic region, focusing on energy policy-related issues in the Arctic which are also of relevance to the wider world—from the governance of sustainable energy transition, to energy access in remote locations, maritime infrastructures and shipping, and issues related to innovation, resilience and capacity-building. He has graduate degrees from Scotland and Sweden.

John Letzing

Digital Editor

World Economic Forum’s Strategic Intelligence Group

John Letzing is the Digital Editor for the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Intelligence Group.  John develops and oversees the publication of the Forum’s more than 120 Transformation Maps, which cover a broad range of global issues, economies, and industries. He joined the Forum following a career in journalism that included stints as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and other publications, where he covered topics including technology, politics, and finance. John received both a BA in History and a Master of Journalism degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Teng Li

Ph.D. Candidate

College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University

Mr. Teng Li graduated from Geographic Talent Base of Wuhan University in 2015, and joined Prof. Xiao Cheng’s Polar Remote Sensing Research Laboratory in Beijing Normal University as a Ph.D. student after that. Taking full advantage of remote sensing technology, he is good at various geomatic tools, such as image processing, interferometric synthetic aperture radar and UAV photogrammetry. Currently, his scientific interests includes: the response of glacial dynamic, ice shelf and ice-sheet mass balance to ongoing climate change. In 2017-2018 Chinese Antarctic Expedition, he carried out field investigation by UAV in Zhongshan Station, near Larsemann Hill. He had published three peer-review journal articles.

Xinwu Li

Professor

Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Prof. Xinwu Li has long-term research experiences in the study of model and method and it’s application of radar remote sensing of environment and polar remote sensing of environment. He has authored or co-authored more than 140 peer-reviewed papers which have been published(more than 50 SCI journal papers). He also has jointly written two books: Scientific Satellites for Global change Research, and Remote Sensing Time Series: Revealing land surface dynamics. He won the Big Data Climate Challenge hosted by United Nations Global Pulse in 2014. Now, he is the Co-Chair of Environmental Change Working Group of Digital Belt and Road Program (DBAR- ENVI) and the member of the SINO-EUROPEAN Panel on Land and Soil (SEPLS)..

Rongxing Li

Professor

Tongji University

Prof. Rongxing (Ron) Li was the Lowber B. Strange Professor at Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering of the Ohio State University. He is a fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). His research areas include photogrammetry and remote sensing, monitoring of global changes and environmental hazards, and planetary mapping and navigation. He is Editor-in-Chief of the international Journal of Marine Geodesy. He published 103 papers in peer reviewed journals, including 12 coauthored in “Science”.

Heikki Lihavainen

Director

Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS)

Heikki Lihavainen is the director of the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS). His scientific background is in experimental atmospheric physics. Before SIOS he worked at Finnish Meteorological institute as a research professor and head of Atmospheric composition research unit. He has been involved in several networks and research infrastructures like ACTRIS, ICOS, AMAP, GAW and EMEP. His task at the SIOS Knowledge Centre is to lead the consortium towards full operational capacity, by strengthening the current services provided to the community, leading on efforts to optimise the observing system and making SIOS an effective tool for society.

Wei Liu

Research Scholar

Risk and Resilience Program at IIASA

Wei Liu, PhD, is a Research Scholar in the Risk and Resilience Program at IIASA, where he leads the Governance in Transition research area. Trained in ecology and social sciences, he collaborates with academia, NGOs and government and combines hard and soft systems modeling with stakeholder participatory processes and citizen science approaches on research related to resilience and sustainability transitions of complex socio-techno- ecological systems. His current research projects include community disaster resilience in the Himalayas, nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation in Europe, and social-ecological impacts of infrastructure development in Southern Africa. He also provides consultancy services and policy advice to a range of governmental agencies and international non-governmental organizations, often on the topics of biodiversity conservation, climate and/or disaster risk and resilience, and poverty reduction.

Eydís Líndal Finnbogadóttir

Director General

National Land Survey of Iceland

Eydís Líndal Finnbogadóttir is Acting Director General of the National Land Survey of Iceland.  She has Master degree in Geology from the University of Copenhagen and Master of Public Administration from the University of Iceland. Eydís has work within the field of Mapping for the last 20 years and has been the Icelandic National Contact Point for the Arctic SDI cooperation from it‘s beginning.

Hank W. Loescher

Director

Strategic Development, CEO Office

Dr. Loescher’s career has been at the nexus of science, engineering and project development. His PhD and MSc is from the University of Florida in Ecosystem Ecology, and holds undergraduate degrees from SUNY and the Vermont State College. He was the second hire for the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a first-of-its continental-scale ecology major research facility and has lead multiple NEON Science Teams (i.e., Instruments, Mobile Platforms, Aquatic). He is currently directing NEON’s and Battelle’s strategic development efforts in Ecology and Science Infrastructure, focusing on public/private enterprises. His research interests include determining the biotic and abiotic controls on ecosystem-level carbon and energy balance across spatial and temporal scales.

Halla Hrund Logadóttir

Co-founder & Co-Director

Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School

Halla Hrund Logadóttir is the Co-founder and Co-Director of the Arctic Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School and a fellow at the Kennedy School's Environment and Natural Resource Program. Her teaching at the Kennedy School focuses on social and policy innovation for the changing Arctic. In Iceland, her home country, Ms. Logadóttir serves on the advisory board to the Minister of Industry, Innovation, and Tourism on Iceland’s Energy Fund. She is also the Founder of the Arctic Innovation Lab; a platform established to encourage solution-based dialogue on Arctic challenges and an advisor to Arctic Today, a key media on circumpolar issues. Previously, Ms. Logadóttir was the director of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University where she continues to lecture on Arctic policy.

Anne Tamara Lorre

Ambassador

Canada to Iceland

Anne Tamara LORRE (BA [Culture and Communication], University Paris VIII, 1989; MA [Communication], University of Quebec in Montreal, 1991; PhD Honours – SSHRCC Grantee - [International Communication], Concordia University - UQAM - UdM Doctorate Program (2001), joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 1998, after positions as a press attaché, in the film industry, and in the world of academic research and NGOs (ORBICOM, The UNESCO-Bell Chair in Communication). Prior to her appointment as Canada’s Ambassador to Iceland in 2016, she was Head of the Secretariat of the Global Consular Forum in Ottawa. Ms. Lorre previously served as Deputy Director, Heads of Mission and Outreach Programmes at the Office of Protocol of Canada. Her most recent posting was in Geneva, Switzerland (2010-2014), as Human Rights Counsellor and Head of Section at the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations. Prior to this assignment she was Senior Policy Advisor in the Middle East Bureau responsible for Israel, West Bank and Gaza, and then Lebanon, Jordan and Syria (2003-2009). Ms. Lorre’s first positions overseas included Washington, DC (1999) as political advisor in the Congressional and Legal Affairs section, and Alternate Representative at the Mission of Canada to the Organization of American States, (2000-2003). She and her spouse have one daughter, Jéromine (Romy), a McGill Law graduate who works as a penal prosecutor in Montreal, QC, and an American Cocker Spaniel: Fjorði H.!

Natalia Loukacheva

Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Governance and Law

University of Northern British Columbia

Dr. Natalia Loukacheva Ph.D., S.J.D. is Canada Research Chair in ‘Aboriginal Governance and Law’ and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern British Columbia.  She is the author of The Arctic Promise: Legal and Political Autonomy of Greenland and Nunavut (UofT Press, 2007); the editor and project leader of the first ever Polar Law Textbook (NCM, TemaNord 538:2010); of the Polar Law Textbook II, (TemaNord 535:2013); and of the Polar Law and Resources book (TemaNord 533:2015);  Dr. Loukacheva  has been working on Arctic and Polar Law related topics since 1996 and has numerous publications on legal and political issues in the Arctic, Polar law, Indigenous Peoples’ rights and governance in the North.

Jan Mikael Lundmark

PhD Fellow

Durham University

Jan Mikael Lundmark is a PhD Fellow at Durham University, Durham Arctic Research Centre for Training and Interdisciplinary Collaboration. He has studied law since 2007 first in Sweden and later in Iceland. He has a wide interest in national and international law, his main interests being within the fields of natural resource law, international environmental law, sustainable development, and human rights focusing on indigenous people's rights and land rights in the Arctic. Mikael has an LL.M. in Polar Law from the University of Akureyri, Iceland (2017), an LL.M. from University of Gothenburg Law School, Sweden, (2011) and an MSc in Social Anthropology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, (2008).

Jens K. Lyberth

Director for Corporate Relations

Royal Greenland

Jens K. Lyberth joined Royal Greenland in 2013 as Director of Corporate Relations & HR. He is from Sisimiut which he left to attend a secondary school in Aasiaat.  After one year as AFS exchange student in a Californian high school he started his education in Denmark and has a degree in Mechanical Engineering (1982). He has been working in the fishing industry in Denmark, Faroe Islands, United Kingdom and Greenland. He has also worked 13 years as Deputy Minister for the Government of Greenland at the Ministry of Infrastructure, at the Premiers Office and later for The Ministry of Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture. During the years he has been appointed as member of the board of directors in several companies

Yaoming Ma

Professor

Head of International Cooperation, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yaoming Ma got his PhD in Atmospheric Physics from Okayama University and in Environment Science from Wageningen University in 2006. He is Deputy Director and full Professor of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Director of the Qomolangma Station for Atmospheric and Environmental Observation and Research (QOMS), CAS. His research expertise is atmospheric boundary observation and satellite remote sensing application. He has also been actively involved in some international programs and act as one of the coordinators. He is still in charge of the long term atmospheric-land interaction monitoring on the Tibetan Plateau. His about 100 papers have been published in the international journals. He is also the Winner of Outstanding Young Scientists for Meteorological Sciences and Technology, 2006, by China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the Winner of Outstanding Young Scientists, 2008, by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). 

Liza Mack

Executive Director

Aleut International Association

Liza Mack is the Executive Director of Aleut International Association. She is Aleut, born and raised in the Aleutians and has over 20 years’ experience working in and around Native organizations and communities. She is a PhD Candidate in the Indigenous Studies Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her research focuses on natural resource management, knowledge transfer and engagement of Indigenous communities in the regulatory process and how that may or may not affect the Native Cultures of Alaska.

Michael Macrander

Environmental Scientist and Ecologist

Integral Consulting

Michael Macrander is an environmental scientist and ecologist at Integral Consulting, working on natural resource damage assessments, ecological risk assessments, and marine mammal impact assessments. Before joining Integral, Dr. Macrander spent more than 25 years as an environmental ecologist for the Royal Dutch Shell Group. He served as the global lead and spokesperson for Arctic science and was responsible for fostering the development, planning, and implementation of an extensive program of scientific investigation and monitoring.

Harri Mäki-Reinikka

Secretary General, Finland's Arctic Advisory Board; & Ambassador

Northern policies at the MFA’s Arctic Team

Currently he is Secretary General of Finland's Arctic Advisory Board, Ambassador on northern policies at the MFA’s Arctic Team (since 1.9.2016). He worked as Ambassador of Finland to six countries – to Lithuania and Belarus in 1.1.2013 -31.8.2016 and to Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan in 1.9.2008 – 31.1.2012. He was Deputy to the Minister and Chief of the Secretariat for Nordic Cooperation at the MFA in 2005-2008. He has gained experience on arctic issues already through his involvement in the Northern Dimension process in 1996- 1998.

Laura Malinauskaite

PhD Candidate

University of Iceland

Laura Malinauskaite’s academic background is in social and environmental sciences, both of which she currently combines is her doctoral studies at the University of Iceland, where she works on ecosystem services of marine mammals and social-ecological systems in the Arctic. Her research interests include: bridging the gap between science and policy, relationship of societies with surrounding ecosystems and associated values, social effects of environmental policy, especially gender-specific effects, and environmental governance.

Jonathan Markowitz

Assistant Professor

School of International Relations at the University of Southern California

Jonathan Markowitz is an assistant professor in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. His primary work is on power projection, grand strategy, the political implications of climate change and resource competition. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation. He was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Harvard University’s Belfer Center from 2012-2014 and a post-doctoral fellow at the Dickey Center from 2014-2015. His work on power projection and grand strategy has been published by the Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Interactions, the Global Journal of Security Studies and the Journal of Peace Research.

Matthaios Melas

PhD Candidate

Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University

Matthaios Melas is a 3rd year PhD Candidate at Aberystwyth University, in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences. He holds a BΑ in Geography from Harokopio University of Athens and a MA in Political Science from the University of York. His interest on the Arctic initially started while he was an undergraduate and developed further by both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, converging geopolitics and new critical security aspects of the Arctic. Funded by the ESRC-DTP, he is continuing the research on the Arctic, especially in the Barents region, by publishing in the Arctic Yearbook in 2016 and with an overseas institutional visit at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in April – May 2018.

Morten Meldgaard

Professor

Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Greenland

As director of a number of research and outreach institutions in Denmark Morten Meldgaard (MM) has 25 years of experience with science administration, fundraising, international collaboration, grass root involvement, policy making, institution building, and general leadership. As a natural scientist MM has focused on arctic environmental history especially on resource dynamics, climate change, and human adaptation through time. MMs approach is interdisciplinary and archaeology, history, and ethno history are combined with population biology, macro ecology and ancient DNA-studies. MM has spent more than 25 field seasons in Greenland and the Arctic. MM lives in Nuuk and is presently engaged in developing science and educational collaboration between Denmark, Greenland, and the Arctic nations and peoples.

Jeannette Menzies

Director of Knowledge Management and Engagement

Polar Knowledge Canada

Jeannette Menzies is the Director of Knowledge Management and Engagement at Polar Knowledge Canada - a Government of Canada agency established to advance Canadian leadership in polar science. Previously Head of the Canadian International Centre for the Arctic Region, Ms Menzies was instrumental in the delivery of Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2013-2015). She was also involved in the negotiation of agreements on Arctic Scientific Cooperation (2017) and Canada’s domestic ratification of the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty (2004). Prior assignments at Global Affairs include postings in Oslo and Ankara and policy work in areas of disaster response and humanitarian affairs, emergency response and consular affairs and of course, Arctic policy.

Matthew Merighi

CEO

Blue Water Metrics Inc.

Matthew Merighi is the CEO of Blue Water Metrics Inc., a Massachusetts-based non-profit that partners with ocean-going vessels and aquaculture facilities to crowdsource new data on ocean health. He is a graduate of the Fletcher School at Tufts University with a focus on Maritime Studies and International Security. He is also a Co-Founder and Vice President for Business Development for PhagePro, a biotech company which develops bacteriophages into medicines to solve global health challenges.

Denise Michels

Senior Project Manager

DOWL

As a Senior Project Manager at DOWL, Ms. Michels is responsible for overall program management and supervision of construction administration of infrastructure projects including community relocation. Ms. Michels previously served as the Mayor of Nome for 12 years. She is currently a member of the Governor’s Climate Action Leadership Team and the Tribal Transportation Self-Governance Program Committee. She is a shareholder of the Sitnasuak Native Corporation, Bering Strait Native Corporation, and tribal member of Nome Eskimo Community

Poul Michelsen

Minister

Ministry, Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Faroe Islands

Poul Michelsen, leader of the Progressive Party, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2015. In addition to Faroese foreign and trade relations, the Minister is also responsible for Nordic cooperation and a wide range of business and industrial sectors, ranging from aquaculture, maritime services and petroleum exploration to IT, communication and tourism.
Michelsen was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time in 1984, and has been a member of the West Nordic Council and the Parliamentary Committee for Foreign Affairs amongst others. Prior to his ministerial appointment, Michelsen was also the Managing Director of his own company.

Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen

Lead Coordinator

Isaaffik Arctic Gateway, Arctic Research Centre (ARC), Greenland Institute of Natural Resources

Mikkelsen is an author and Greenland specialist affiliated with leading Arctic centers and initiatives within the Kingdom of Denmark and internationally, including ISAAFFIK Arctic Gateway, Arctic Research Centre, Arctic Science Partnership and Greenland Climate Research Centre. He is a former member of the Danish military SIRIUS dog sledge patrol and founder and director of the NANOK company. He holds a degree in electronics engineering. He has lived over ten years in Greenland and travelled thousands of kilometers by dog sledge, kayak, and boat. He visits Greenland regularly.

Scott Minerd

Chief Investment Officer

Guggenheim Partners, United States

B. Scott Minerd Chairman of Guggenheim Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer

As Chairman of Guggenheim Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer, Mr. Minerd guides the Firm’s investment strategies and leads its research on global macroeconomics. Prior to joining Guggenheim Partners, Mr. Minerd was a managing director for Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Mr. Minerd is an Overseer at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and is a board member of RFKHuman Rights.He received a B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and completed graduate work at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Martin Mohr Olsen

PhD student; Head

Centre for Innovation, The University of the Faroe Islands

Martin Mohr Olsen is the head of the newly formed Centre for Innovation (nyskapan.org) at the University of the Faroe Islands and a PhD student focusing on regional innovation collaboration in the Arctic. He was acting course coordinator for the West Nordic Studies collaborative academic programme (westnordicstudies.org) His main focus is now on how small Arctic universities can become instrumental in fostering agents for sustainable transitions and how Arctic stakeholders can collaborate on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Alexander Moiseev

Coordinator

Marine Program, WWF Russia

Mr. Moiseev has been an integral part of the WWF Russia team since 2009. He is a coordinator of WWF Russia’s marine program, based in Moscow. He coordinates work on sustainable fishing, and identifying and mitigating the negative impacts of shipping to the environment of Arctic seas in Russia.

Eddy Moors

Rector and Professor

IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Prof. Dr. Eddy J. Moors is Rector of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. He also holds the position of professor “Water and Climate” at VU University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Moors started his career at the World Meteorological Organization working in the Africa and the Caribbean. Before coming to Delft, he worked at Wageningen University and Research. Moors is among others chair of the IGRAC foundation, member of the board of trustees of the Just Digit Foundation and member of the SENSE research school. He is coordinating lead author of the chapter on scenarios of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Report. He is associated editor of “Environmental Science and Policy” as well as member of the editorial board of “Climate Services”.

Berta Morata

PhD Student in Environmental and Natural Resource Engineering

Luleå University of Technology

Berta Morata is a registered practicing architect and urbanist. Her research, preliminary under the scope of Territorial Metabolism, critically seeks to reframe the design disciplines in relation to broader socio-ecological processes and territorial interdependencies through cross disciplinary research on urban metabolism. At LTU, Berta has been engaged in the combining of research and teaching at the Urban design studio. She is also founder of Architecture Archives in the Barents Region, a project of cataloging and divulgation of the architectural, landscape and design heritage within the Barents Region. Berta is an affiliated research member of ARCUM, Arctic Research Centre at Umeå University.

Marion Moreau

Director

Sigfox Foundation, Sigfox

Marion Moreau has been a journalist specialized in new technologies for 10 years, and is one of the key experts of the startup ecosystem in France.

Marion started her career at only 19 for “Club Internet”, one of the first leading Internet providers in France as editor and web reporter.

In 2011, she joined “FrenchWeb” as Editor-in-Chief, and travelled a lot as an insider of new startups in France, Europe and in the USA.

In 2014, she co-directed a film documentary called "We Love Entrepreneurs", which has been viewed over 1 million times on the web.

Based on her solid experience and observation of innovation, she strongly believes that new technologies have a role to play in the general interest. She joined Sigfox in 2015, the only global low power network dedicated to the Internet of Things. Alongside with the co-founders of Sigfox, she leads the Sigfox Foundation, which helps protect the planet and its people with low power sensors.

Marion, based in Paris, is 42, and is a mother of two children.

Scott Morey

Vice-President

Human Resources at OPTrust

Scott Morey is Vice-President, Human Resources at OPTrust, one of Canada’s largest pension funds with assets of $20 billion and offices in London, Sydney and Toronto. He is responsible for the organization’s talent management, organizational effectiveness, labour relations and total compensation strategies. Scott has more than 25 years of executive leadership experience specializing in organizational transformation, labour and employee relations. He has worked for multinational companies in the automotive manufacturing, airline, sales and distribution industries. Prior to OP Trust, Scott was Vice-President, Labour and Employee Relations at Air Canada where he led the airline’s employee culture change initiative, and negotiated and implemented Canada’s first Federally Regulated Multi-Employer Pension Plan. He was also responsible for its corporate labour and employee strategy, and the administration of collective bargaining agreements covering 26,000 employees internationally. Scott was an Executive Board Member of Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communications (FETCO) and the Conference Board of Canada, as well as a Commonwealth Study Conference Member. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resources from Brock University and has certified designations in Labour Relations and Collective Bargaining from Queen’s University.

Gail Mosey

Project Leader, Arctic Renewable Energy Atlas (AREA) Project; & Project Lead and Senior Energy Analyst

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Gail Mosey has worked at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as Project Lead and Senior Energy Analyst for 14 years. Gail has a Master’s degree in Economics from Colorado School of Mines and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from University of Colorado. Gail is NREL’s trans-national Arctic lead and works on strategic aspects related to the Arctic, energy solutions in remote communities to improve resiliency and energy security, and the energy-water-food nexus. Gail works with tribes and villages throughout the U.S. on strategic planning including energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions to meet tribal energy requirements and improve resiliency.

Kaisu Mustonen

Head of Biodiversity Unit

Snowchange Cooperative, Finland

Kaisu Mustonen is Head of Biodiversity Unit at the Snowchange Cooperative, Finland located in the village of Selkie, North Karelia. She has been working in the Arctic since 2000. Her work experience includes leading biodiversity, traditional knowledge and climate change work in Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Yukon and Nunavut in Canada, Alaska, USA, Iceland, Sámi territories of Finland and Russia as well as Northeastern Siberia, Russia. She specialized on the biodiversity and traditional knowledge of women. She is the co-author and author of several monographs and science articles on the Arctic, including an author of several chapters of Arctic Biodiversity Assessment of the Arctic Council. Recently she has worked on large-scale restoration of boreal habitats in Finland and Sámi areas.

John Muthyala

Professor of English

University of Southern Maine

John Muthyala is Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, USA. He currently leads USM’s Digital Humanities Initiative. His research and teaching areas include Digital Humanities, Globalization, and International American Studies; he has published two books, Reworlding America: Myth, History, and Narrative, and Dwelling in American: Dissent, Empire, and Globalization, and several articles in major academic journals. In July 2018, he directed the first Digital Humanities Institute at the University of Southern Maine.

Hema Nadarajah

PhD Candidate

Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia

Hema Nadarajah is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia. Her research interests concern studying the political processes of translating scientific knowledge into international policy and cooperative management, as well as the influence of legal instruments pertaining to science and technology on inter-state relations, in frontier regions such as the Arctic and Outer Space. Hema has a Master of Environment from the Australian National University where she specialised in Climate Change Policy and Economics, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto where she majored in Geography and Geology. She used to work with the National Parks Board of Singapore.

Tetabo Nakara

Minister

Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development, Republic of Kiribati

The Hon. Tetabo Nakara is MP for Beru. MFMRD has a vital role in maximising economic returns from the nation's key resources, fish and marine resources, and in ensuring that in generating these economic values, we remain responsible custodians in conserving and policing our oceans and marine resources for future generations.

Previously Minister Nakara was the Minister for Environment, Land and Agricultural Development (MELAD) and played a major role in the design and establishment of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the region's largest protected area.  

Bhavani Narayanaswamy

Scottish Association for Marine Science

I am a benthic ecologist focussing on Arctic and deep-sea ecosystems, specifically studying the impacts of anthropogenic inputs as well as biotic, abiotic on the faunal community. My main research focus is investigating the diversity, composition and structure of benthic fauna and how different environmental variables e.g. pollution, impacts from a changing climate may interact and influence the fauna. I am particularly interested in investigating the distribution and composition of plastics, specifically microplastics, found in the marine environment especially those within the Arctic and deep seas, as it is hypothesised that the deep sea may be the final repository for this pollutant.

Asii Chemnitz Narup

Mayor

Sermersooq

Asii Chemnitz Narup has been the mayor of Sermersooq municipality since 2009. She has previously served as both a Member of the Parliament of Greenland and of the Government of Greenland.

Social policy, children´s wellbeing and good educational opportunities belong to Asii’s core values, and she’s continuously working towards unlocking social and economic growth potentials for the benefit of both the citizens of Sermersooq and Greenland as a whole.

Asii believes that business development and education is the way to increased welfare and a strong society.

Jonathan Nass

Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director

Maine Port Authority

Jonathan Nass, Esq. is the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Maine Port Authority. Prior to the Maine Port Authority, Nass was Deputy Commissioner at the Maine Department of Transportation.  He has previously served as a policy advisor to Maine Governor Paul R. LePage and to U.S. Senator Susan Collins. An attorney, Nass has worked as a litigator for a Washington, D.C. based law firm and was counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security. In 2008, he deployed to Iraq with the U.S. State Department where he was embedded in a U.S. Army infantry battalion operating in Diyala Province. He is a graduate of the Catholic University School of Law where he was a member of the law review and St. Lawrence University.

David Natcher

Professor

University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

Dr. Natcher is a Professor in the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Research Chair in Arctic Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada). Dr. Natcher serves as the Canadian representative on both the International Arctic Science Committee’s Social and Human Working Group and the Social, Economic and Cultural Expert Group (SECEG) to the Arctic Council’s Sustainable Development Working Group

Ståle Navrud

Professor

Environmental and resource economics (ERE) at the School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)

Ståle Navrud is a professor of environmental and resource economics (ERE) at the School of Economics and Business at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). He has been a Fulbright Scholar at UC- Berkeley, and visiting professor at UC-San Diego and University of New Mexico. He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters and edited three books on economic valuation of ecosystem services, biodiversity, air and water pollution, cultural heritage, landscapes, arctic recreation/tourism, and environmental costs of transport and wind/hydro power. He was Review Editor for Economics of Adaptation for IPCCs 5th Assessment Report.

Heather Nicol

Trent University

Dr. Heather Nicol is a political geographer at Trent University, Canada, whose research is focused upon exploring the dynamics which structure the political geography of the circumpolar North, with a specific focus on the North American Arctic and Canada-US relations. Her work is focused upon cross-border relations, tensions, geopolitical narratives and mappings of power and sovereignty.  Nicol was the 2015-16 Visiting Fulbright Chair to the University of Washington, at the Centre for Canadian Studies and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Bogi P. Nielsen

CEO

FAROESHIP

An auditor by education from Copenhagen Business School, Mr. Nielsen also spent time as an auditor at Faroese auditingfirm NOTA as well as serving as CFO for more than five years at FAROESHIP, before becoming CEO of the company. He also serves as a board member for Betri Pensjón and Betri Trygging, both part of the Betri conglomorate which operates in the Faroese banking, pensions and insurance sector.

Mogens Nielsen

Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Nukissiorfiit Greenland

Joined the Royal Danish Navy January 1975 and retired by 30 November 2013 as Commander Senior Grade. During this period I completed a Marine Engineer education. The military education includes a larger number of management and leadership courses. During my assignment at the Higher Headquarters I have participated in a four week course in France, named SERA. During the years I have been assigned to duties covering positions in the navy through to higher headquarters within the Danish Armed Forces and lastly, prior to retirement, staff officer in NATO Strategic Military Command SHAPE in Mons Belgium. As of 1. January 2014 positions in Nukissiorfiit. First as District manager for establishing district Disko followed by the position as Chief Technical Officer/Chief Operational Officer in the Headquarter in Nuuk, Greenland.

Egill Thor Nielsson

doctoral candidate

University of Lapland, University of Iceland

Egill Thor Nielsson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Lapland and University of Iceland. He has been Executive Secretary of the China-Nordic Arctic Research Center (CNARC) since its establishment in December 2013, and is Visiting Scholar at the Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) and the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS). His research focus is on China-Nordic relations within an Arctic context, in terms of policy, economy, and science.

Mikhail Nikolaev

first president of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia; former Chairman of The Norther Forum;

State Council of the Sakha Republic

Birth date and place: November 13, 1937.

Education: Omsky State Veterinary Institute, 1961; Higher Party School, the Central Committee of the Communist Party, 1971.

Deputy of The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation the 6th convocation. Member of the State Duma Committee on Regional Policy and the problems of the North and the Far East. State Counselor of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Thomas Nilsen

Editor

Barents Observer

Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Barents Observer, located in Kirkenes, northern Norway. The news-online publishes in both English and Russian and has a dedicated focus on Russia, journalist cooperation and freedom of speech in the Barents Region and the European Arctic. Nilsen has long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north, both as radio-, magazine and newspaper reporter back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. Environment, civil society and security issues are among topics of special interest.

Annika E. Nilsson

Senior Research Fellow

Stockholm Environment Institute and Affiliated Faculty in Environmental Politics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Dr Annika E. Nilsson is Senior Research Fellow at Stockholm Environment Institute and Affiliated Faculty in Environmental Politics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Her work focuses on the politics of Arctic change, environmental governance, communication at the science-policy interface, future scenarios, and the relationship between resource extraction and sustainable Arctic communities. She has participated in several scientific assessments under the auspices of the Arctic Council. Nilsson received her PhD in environmental sciences in 2007, following a 20-year career as a science journalist.

Birgit Njåstad

Senior Environmental and Policy Adviser

Norwegian Polar Institute

Birgit Njåstad is Senior Environmental and Policy Adviser in the environment and mapping

department of the Norwegian Polar Institute. Njåstad has had various positions at the Institute over two decades, and has throughout this period worked extensively and broadly with Antarctic management and policy related issues. She has participated and/or represented Norway in the Committee for Environmental Protection since 1998. She was at the annual meeting of the

Committee in May 2018 elected Chair of the Committee where she earlier has served as vice chair.

Njåstad has also worked extensively with Arctic environmental management issues, primarily

focused on the Norwegian Arctic in general and the Svalbard archipelago specifically. Njåstad has a master in natural resource management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Scott Northey

COO

Nunavut Resources Corporation

Scott worked for 21 years as an Investment Banker on Bay Street in Toronto until the end of 2008. In his last 8 years on Bay Street, he was Managing Director and Head of the Infrastructure and Project Financing Group at TD Securities in Toronto. As part of his list of accomplishments, he was responsible for structuring and placing the $165mm financing associated with the Deh Cho Bridge project over the Mackenzie River in the NWT. Since leaving TD Securities he has worked on a number of contracts and initiatives many involving indigenous groups. In 2010, he joined the board of the Nunavut Resources Corporation (NRC) which is 100%-owned by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association (KIA). Since 2012 he has been the Chief Operating Officer of NRC and has focused on seeking opportunities for Inuit to: invest in and develop the Grays Bay Road & Port project in the Kitikmeot region; and to own and develop mineral projects on Inuit-owned Lands granted under the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement.

Helga Guðrún Númadóttir

Vice chairman

Ungir umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association)

Helga Guðrún Númadóttir is the vice chairman of Ungir umhverfissinnar (Iceland's Youth Environmentalist Association). Helga was among the participants of the Arctic Youth Summit in Rovaniemi and a member in the Global Arctic Youth Network. Helga studies Anthropology and her focus is on dominant global climate change discourses, in which vulnerable communities (such as indigenous groups in the Arctic) are often constructed as powerless victims.

Tukumminnguaq Nykjær Olsen

Graduate Student

University of Greenland

Tukumminnguaq Nykjær Olsen is a graduate student at the University of Greenland, where she studies Governance and Sustainability under the West Nordic Studies programme, and works for the Greenlandic branch of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. She holds a degree in Social Sciences and has conducted her studies both in Fairbanks, Alaska and in Akureyri, Iceland. Tukumminnguaq is a native Greenlander who grew up in Qaanaaq, the northernmost town in Greenland. Tuku completed the Indigenous Peoples Rights and Policy programme at Columbia University, and she is a former Arctic Focal Point in the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus and Winner of Arctic Innovation Lab, Arctic Circle Assembly Iceland 2017.

Joan Nymand Larsen

Professor of Economics and Arctic Studies, University of Akureyri; & Senior Scientist

Stefansson Arctic Institute

Prof. Joan Nymand Larsen is senior scientist and research director with the Stefansson Arctic Institute, and professor of economics and arctic studies with the University of Akureyri, Iceland. She specializes in processes of economic, sustainable, and human development in the Arctic, northern extractive industries, and climate change impacts and adaptation. She leads “Arctic Youth and Sustainable Futures (2016-2018), and led the Arctic Human Development Report: Regional Processes and Global Linkages (2015), and Arctic Social Indicators (2010, 2015). She is partner in REXSAC –Resource Extraction and Sustainable Communities; and was coordinating lead author with the IPCC, WG-II, AR5, Polar Regions chapter.

Brendan O’Donnell

Fellow

Ecologic Institute

Brendan O’Donnell is a Fellow at Ecologic Institute. His work focuses on sustainable urban development, especially the visibility and accessibility of diverse communities in the decision-making process; post-carbon finance, including the development of vehicles and policies to support sustainable investing; and the future of environmentalism, particularly how art and other cultural influences inform the concept of nature and inspire environmental policy. He is the lead editor of the 2018 Arctic Summer College Yearbook (Springer).

Neil O’Rourke

Senior Director

Safe Shipping and Economic, Industry Intelligence

Neil O’Rourke is a senior executive and a member of the Canadian Coast Guard’s Management Board. He also represents Canada and serves as a councillor with the International Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authority. Mr. O’Rourke is responsible for the development of national strategies to sustain and transform Coast Guard’s marine navigation programs, which include: Aids to Navigation; Marine Communications and Traffic Services; Waterways Management; and Icebreaking and Ice Information Services. Neil is also the national lead for Arctic program policy, user fees, and the implementation of e-Navigation in Canadian waters. Taking these responsibilities into account, Neil’s directorate works closely with Coast Guard operations, technical services, training (Canadian Coast Guard College), other Government of Canada departments, and external stakeholders (i.e. industry, communities, national and international organizations) to identify service requirements, leverage technological and operational innovations, and competently drive decisions for cost-effective, modern and domestically/internationally aligned marine navigation services. In addition to his nearly 10 years at the Canadian Coast Guard, Neil also brings private sector experience as a former management consultant and as a former executive in the energy sector; specifically, with Petro-Canada Fuels.

Liselotte Odgaard

Associate Professor

Institute for Military Operations, Royal Danish Defence College

Liselotte Odgaard is an associate Professor at the Institute for Military Operations, Royal Danish Defence College. Dr. Odgaard has published numerous monographs, edited books, peer-reviewed articles and research papers on Chinese and Asia-Pacific security, and she is a frequent commentator on these issues in the media. She has been a visiting scholar at institutions such as Harvard University, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Norwegian Nobel Institute. She regularly participates in policy dialogues such as the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing.

Elizabeth Ogilvie

Environmental artist

University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh College of Art

Elizabeth Ogilvie is one of the foremost Scottish artists of her generation. Her work fuses art, architecture and science and water/ice is the main medium and subject. Operating internationally, she highlights one of the world’s most challenging problems, creating experiences for her public through large-scale solo projects in key art centres. Ogilvie has worked on the Out of Ice project for several years, conducting field research with residents in northwest Greenland. The associated book is published by Black Dog, London. She taught at University of Edinburgh and has the rare distinction of simultaneously being acknowledged forher academic credentials, interdisciplinary networks and research.

Mikkel Runge Olesen

Researcher

Danish Institute for International Studies

Mikkel Runge Olesen conducts research at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in the Foreign Policy Unit. He holds a PhD degree from University of Copenhagen. His research interests include Danish foreign and security policy, Danish-American relations and foreign and security policy in the Arctic. His Arctic research falls within three clusters: Conflict potential in the Arctic region and the idea of Arctic exceptionalism, US-Danish-Greenlandic relations concerning the American base presence in Greenland and the foreign policy challenges associated with resolving conflicting continental shelf claims in the Arctic Ocean.

Annika Olsen

Mayor

Torshavn

Mayor Annika Olsen has a Master of Arts in Danish and religion. She was elected to Torshavn’s city council in 2004-2008. Olsen has served as a member of the Faroese parliament and was appointed as Minister of the interior from 2008 to 2011, and as deputy prime minister and minister of social affairs from 2011 to 2015. She was elected as mayor of Torshavn in 2017.

Bjørn Olsen

Rector

Nord University

Bjørn Olsen is Rector of Nord University. Bjørn is a Professor of Organisational Theory and Management. Bjørn studied business and economics at Bodø Graduate School of Business before completing his master’s degree at Brunel University in England, followed by a doctorate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Sara Olsvig

Leader of Inuit Ataqatigiit; Member of Parliament

Greenland

Sara Olsvig is the leader of Inuit Ataqatigiit, member of Inatsisartut, the parliament of Greenland, former Vice Premier and Minister of Social Affairs, Families, Gender Equality and Justice. Olsvig has been member of the Danish parliament representing Greenland. Olsvig was Chairperson of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region from 2013 to 2014. She is currently member of Inatsisartut’s Foreign Policy and Security Committee, The Committee of Finances and the Committee of Business and Mineral Resources. Olsvig is trained anthropologist and previously worked as Coordinator of Human Rights Issues and Executive Director for Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), Greenland.

Elle Merete Omma

Head of the EU unit

Saami Council

Elle Merete Omma was the previous Executive Secretary of the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples' Secretariat.  She holds a Master in Law and is raised in a reindeer herder family. She is currently Head of the EU unit at the Saami Council.

Elizabeth Orr

PhD canditate, Geology

University of Cincinatti

Elizabeth Orr is a PhD candidate in Geology (glacial geology and geomorphology) at the University of Cincinnati. She is member of the editorial board of the State of Environmental Science in Svalbard (SESS) report, the annual report produced by Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS). She was recruited through the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists and represents SIOS’ effort to build capacity in the young generation of Polar Scientists.

Natsuhiko Otsuka

Professor

Arctic Research Center in Hokkaido University

Prof. Natsuhiko Otsuka
Arctic Research Center in Hokkaido University

Bettina Ovgaard

Science Liaison Officer

Joint Arctic Command, Greenland

Bettina Ovgaard is a Greenland specialist and her current job with the Danish Defense focus on cooperation and support to researchers operating in Greenland as well as on generating an overview of the national and international scientific research conducted in the Arctic. She holds a Master of Science in Information Technology and is a co-developer of ISAAFFIK Arctic Gateway. Besides having traveled to most corners of Greenland she has been working six years at Thule Air Base. She presently lives in Nuuk.

Piotr Owczarek

Associate Professor of Institute of Geography and Regional Development

University of Wroclaw, Poland

Piotr Owczarek is Associate Professor of Institute of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. He has extensive teaching and research experience with a focus on geomorphology, Arctic and high-mountain dendrochronology and landscape transformations under the influence of human and climate change. Piotr Owczarek is the head of Tree Ring Laboratory at the University of Wroclaw. He participated in five expedition to Svalbard and other Arctic areas: northern Scandinavia, Iceland and northern Quebec. During the last years his interests have been directed to “the Third Pole”, where he participated in field work in the Pamir region.

Sólveig Rósa Ólafsdóttir

Senior scientist

Marine and Freshwater Research Institute

Dr. Ólafsdóttir is chemical oceanographer and a senior scientist at MFRI. Her research focuses are biogeochemical cycles and the carbonate chemistry in relation to climatic conditions and circulation in Icelandic waters. She has been active in the research of chemical oceanography for over 25 years and now leads the chemical oceanography projects at MRFI and has been on numerous cruises as a chief scientist.

Jón Ólafsson

Senior Scientist

Institute of Freshwater Fisheries

Dr. Ólafsson is Freshwater Ecologist at the Marine & Freshwater Research Institute, Reykjavík, Iceland and a Guest Professor at the Agricultural University of Iceland. His current field of research focuses mainly on structure and function of freshwater ecosystems in relation to warming climate. Previously he has been involved in research projects on ecology of glacier fed river in Europe, ecological succession of kettle hole ponds in connection to retreating glaciers and animal communities of theromokarst ponds in relations to thawing palsa formations. Dr. Ólafsson received his BSc. degree from the University of Iceland and PhD degree from University of Bristol, UK. For the last five years Dr. Ólafsson has been involved in work lead by CAFF on Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) focusing on freshwater biodiversity. He is currently member of the Terrestrial Working Group organized by International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), where he represents Iceland.

Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir

Assistant Professor

University of Iceland

Dr. Ómarsdóttir is assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Iceland. Her research focuses on Icelandic society and politics, Iceland’s foreign and security policy and feminism in international relations. She holds BA and MA degrees in international relations, post-graduate certificates in methodology and university teaching, and recently completed her PhD at University College Cork in Ireland. She serves on the board of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland and the board of advisors of Höfði – Reykjavik Peace Centre.

Rob Page

Filmmaker

University of Dundee

As a film-maker Rob is fascinated by the people he meets, and in the stories we all have to tell. He is interested in the experiences that make us and shape us, and motivated by the desire to share them. His work spans the disciplines of documentary filmmaking and fine art, leading him to many fortuitous discoveries which have opened countless doors across all sections of contemporary society. It is within these diverse and thought-provoking cultures that he nurtures his creative processes and grows his artistic and film-making abilities, thriving on working collaboratively within an often eclectic but always fascinating environment.

Glenn G. Page

President/CEO

SustainaMetrix

For over 30 years, Glenn has been working on creating pathways to transformation of our coasts/oceans/watersheds. His advanced degrees are in interdisciplinary marine science and has been working at the interface of science, policy and practice. As restoration ecologist by training, he “grew up” designing and building natural systems (i.e. dunes, rivers, wetlands and forests), focusing on ecosystem function, equivalency and evaluation. Currently, he is the President/CEO of SustainaMetrix, which is about “Navigating in the Anthropocene” as Glenn leads a team of interdisciplinary experts who brings innovation, evaluation and systems thinking to complex, messy, cross-scale, wicked challenges of our time.

Anne Pajot

General manager in charge of network relations

Bioxegy

As a biological and biotechnological engineer, Anne Pajot first participated in several research projects. In Iceland, she worked in astrobiology and marine biology, focusing on the study of extremophiles bacteria. In France, she studied a species of microalgae for its anti- pollutant and anti-UV properties. Passionate about Nature, she is convinced that biodiversity can guide us towards a more sustainable future. Natural strategies, from the microcosmos to macrocosmos, are optimized and inspiring, facing our current challenges. Then, together with five other associates, they launched Bioxegy, an innovation agency helping companies to adopt this formidable innovation method and to profit from biomimicry.

Holly Parker

Assistant Provost

University of New England

Holly Parker is the University of New England’s Assistant Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Associate Director of UNE NORTH. Before joining UNE, Holly played diverse roles in education: developing interdisciplinary digital curricula for schools across the U.S., teaching high school English, and directing a boat building program for at-risk Maine youth. At UNE, Holly uses her experience to build teams that develop, implement, and evaluate innovative best practices that support student success. Holly holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard University. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the Muskie School of Public Service; her research focuses on sustainability leadership education.

Lori Parrott

Manager of Atmospheric Sciences

Sandia National Labs

Lori Parrott manages Sandia’s atmospheric sciences research at Sandia National Laboratories, as well as Sandia’s Arctic Science and Security Initiative.  In her 30 year career at the Labs, she has held a variety of leadership roles, including most recently modeling and simulation of impacts and interdependencies of critical infrastructure systems.  Her degrees are from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Iowa State University.

William Patrowicz

CEO & Managing Director

Kaiser Global Development Corp, USA

Mr. Patrowicz manages an international client portfolio of those investing and pursuing sustainable means to conduct energy-intensive scientific exploration and commercial technological innovation. In the US, he also develops public-private partnerships for public safety and national security programs. Mr. Patrowicz has served as a business development executive, elected leader, and military officer and has worked with governments and commercial partners in ten nations. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Fang Peng

Associate Professor

College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University

Dr. Peng got Ph.D. in microbiology from Wuhan University and carried his post-doc research
in the University of Nottingham. After that, he has been working in College of Life Sciences,
Wuhan University. He is interested in the research topics on microbiology in extreme
environment and has published 17 research papers.

Tony Penikett

Former Yukon Premier; Visiting Professor

Simon Fraser University Public Policy School

Tony Penikett is Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University. He spent 25 years in public life, including two terms as Premier of the Yukon. He has worked as a mediator and negotiator, including on devolution issues in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon, and has taught on the history of aboriginal treaty negotiations at Simon Fraser University, Queen's University and the University of Washington. Penikett is the author of Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making (Douglas & McIntyre, 2006) and Hunting the Northern Character (UBC Press, 2017). He is also the author of two films: The Mad Trapper for BBC TV/Time Life Films and La Patrouille Perdue, for ORTF France.

Andrey N. Petrov

President

International Arctic Social Sciences Association and Director, ARCTICenter, University of Northern Iowa

Dr. Andrey Petrov is a social scientist and current President of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA). He serves as Associate Professor of Geography and Director of the Arctic, Remote and Cold Territories Interdisciplinary Center (ARCTICenter) at the University of Northern Iowa, USA. Dr. Petrov's research primarily focuses on economic issues in northern communities and policies of regional development in the Arctic. He also studies human-environment relationships and Arctic socio-ecological systems. He is leading a number of circumpolar research initiatives, most importantly the NSF research coordination networks in Arctic sustainability (Arctic- FROST and Artic-COAST). He also has been a leader and participant of the Arctic Social Indicators, Arctic Human Development Report, ReSDA and other major international projects.

Matthias Petschke

European Commission Director

EU Satellite navigation Programmes

After studying Law at the universities of Würzburg, Lausanne and Freiburg, Matthias Petschke joined the German Federal Ministry of Economy. He then served as First Secretary at the German Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. In 1995, he joined the European Commission where he has held posts mainly in the fields of Trade and Internal Market policies. After serving as Head of the European Commission's Representation in Berlin from 2009 until 2013, in October 2013, he was appointed Director for the European GNSS programmes (Galileo and EGNOS), in the Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Matthias Petschke

European Commission Director

'EU Satellite navigation Programmes'

After studying Law at the universities of Würzburg, Lausanne and Freiburg, Matthias Petschke joined the German Federal Ministry of Economy. He then served as First Secretary at the German Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. In 1995, he joined the European Commission where he has held posts mainly in the fields of Trade and Internal Market policies. After serving as Head of the European Commission's Representation in Berlin from 2009 until 2013, in October 2013, he was appointed Director for the European GNSS programmes (Galileo and EGNOS), in the Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.

Gustav Pétursson

PhD Candidate

University of Lapland

Gustav Pétursson is a PhD candidate at University of Lapland, Finland. The focus of his research is on the relationship of Iceland and NATO after the departure of the U.S. manned Icelandic Defence Force from Iceland in the autumn of 2006. Apart from his PhD studies, Gustav has worked as a part time lecturer at the University of Iceland and as a staff officer in Operations Division at NATO HQ. Gustav has also served as a board member of NEXUS: Research Forum on Security and Defence, 2009-2015, and the Atlantic Treaty Association Varðberg, 2014-2016.

Duncan Phillips

Vice-President

Strategic Markets, Mitacs

Duncan is Vice President, Strategic Markets at Mitacs – a Canadian, national, not-for-profit organization that has designed and delivered research and training programs in Canada for 18 years - where he is working to better connect with Indigenous communities and organizations and to extend the reach of Mitacs programs to include community-nominated projects and partnerships, as well as greater inclusion for social innovation and the social sciences and humanities. He also serves as Vice-President of the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge Management Society, is a member of the Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, and an Arctic Inspiration Prize Ambassador.

Alexander Pilyasov

Director, Center of Northern and Arctic Economies, Council for the Study of Productive Forces; Chair

Russian Section of European Regional Science Association, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Russia

Director, Center of the North and Arctic Economy, Chairman of the Russian section of the European Regional Science Association and Chairman of the socio- economic section of the Expert Council for the Arctic and Antarctic under the Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, author of 140 scientific publications.

Rebecca Pincus

Assistant Professor

Strategic and Operational Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, US Naval War College

Rebecca Pincus is Assistant Professor in the Strategic and Operational Research Department in the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the US Naval War College. She previously served as the research lead at the US Coast Guard’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy, located at the US Coast Guard Academy. Her work includes peer-reviewed articles and chapters for a variety of publications, as well as official reports and studies. Areas of interest include Arctic security and maritime operations, and the Bering Strait.

Jan Piribeck

Professor of Art

University of Southern Maine

Jan Piribeck is a Professor of Art at the University of Southern Maine. She holds an MFA in Art from Northern Illinois University, and currently resides in Portland, Maine, USA. Her work fuses art with geographic information science to consider relationships among the arts, economics and environmental sustainability. She is a founding member of the King Tide Party artists' collective, whose mission is to raise public awareness about sea level change. She has presented her work in national and international forums and is currently working on The Moving Tides, a project that chronicles her journeys through the North Atlantic region.

Hans-Otto Poertner

Senior Scientist, Section Head with the Alfred Wegener Institute; & Co-Chair

IPCC WG II

Hans-Otto Poertner is Senior Scientist, Section Head with the Alfred Wegener Institute and Co- Chair of IPCC WG II. Since 2003, he has served as writer, coordinating lead author, and lead author on IPCC reports. He is a professor specializing in the adaptation strategies of marine organisms at the University of Bremen. Dr. Pörtner is an internationally respected biologist noted for his outstanding expertise on the climate. Research interests include the effects of climate warming, ocean acidification, and hypoxia on marine animals and ecosystems. He studied at Münster and Düsseldorf Universities receiving his PhD and qualifying in Animal Physiology.

Mikhail Pogodaev

Executive Director

Northern Forum

Mikhail Pogodaev, PhD is Executive Director of the Northern Forum, a non-profit, international organization composed of sub-national or regional governments from eight northern countries. He is also Executive Chair of the Association of World Reindeer Herders, an NGO that unites more than 20 different indigenous peoples from 10 countries across the Circumpolar North. Dr. Pogodaev is also the President of the University of the Arctic Institute for Circumpolar Reindeer Husbandry. He was born in 1978 in a reindeer herding village Topolinoe in Tomponsly district of Sakha Republic (Yakutia). Dr. Pogodaev graduated from the Saint-Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance and has a PhD in Economics.

Ben Ponia

Chief of Staff

Office of the Prime Minister, Cook Islands

Ben Ponia is from the Cook Islands, a tiny Pacific Island nation scattered over two million square kilometres of ocean. He is currently the Chief of Staff for the Prime Minister’s Office, a role that sees him taking responsibility for national policies and overseeing diverse state portfolios.

Prior to his appointment he served as the Secretary for the Ministry of Marine Resources. Under his watch fisheries has become a key economic sector supported by sophisticated maritime surveillance operations.

He spent 10 years with Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in New Caledonia, an intergovernmental development agency that involved extensive work and travel among its 27 Pacific islands members.

Ben has a Master science degree from James Cook University in Australia and is enrolled in a Ph.D in international law, examining the implications of the United Nations Law of the Sea upon the sovereignty of small island states

Tahnee Prior

Ph.D. Candidate

Global Governance, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo

Tahnee Prior is a Ph.D. Candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, and a visiting researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems in Laxenburg, Austria. She holds a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholarship and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Her doctoral work in global environmental governance examines the role of legal systems in maintaining or preventing our ability to adapt to rapidly changing and complex environments, like the Arctic. Most recently, Tahnee co-lead “Women of the Arctic”, a NordForsk funded project and side event at the 2018 UArctic Congress.

Antonello Provenzale

Italian National Council of Research (CNR)

Dr. Antonello Provenzale is a scientist. He is director of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the National Research Council of Italy. His research activities include climate-geosphere-biosphere interactions, ecosystems and extreme environments. Golden Badge Award of the European Geophysical Society in 1997. Invited professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure and at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, at the Ben Gurion University in Beer Sheva (Israel) and at the University of Colorado in Boulder (USA). Coordinator of the EU H2020 project "ECOPOTENTIAL" (2015-2019). Coordinator of GEO ECO, the Global Ecosystem Initiative of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Author of more than 150 papers on international peer-reviewed journals (ISI).

Wang Qian

Deputy Director General

Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Natural Resources of China (MNR)

2018-present: Deputy Director General of Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Natural Resources of China (MNR)

2009-2018: Deputy Director General, Department of Science, Technologyand International Cooperation, National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China (NASG)

2002-2009: Director, Foreign Affairs Office, State Bureau of Surveying andMapping of China (SBSM)

1999-2002: Deputy Director, Foreign Affairs Office, State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping of China (SBSM)

1991-1999:Senior Officer, Foreign Affairs Office, National Bureau ofSurveying and Mapping of China (NBSM)

Yubao Qiu

Associate Professor

Institute of remote sensing and digital earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Dr. Yubao Qiu is working as an associate professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, where his research is focusing remote sensing of snow and ice changes in the High Mountain and Polar Cold Regions. He is the Point of Contact and co-lead to the GEO Cold Regions Initiative (GEOCRI) and is actively involved in Digital Belt and Road Program (DBAR), the International Science Program for Sustainable Development of the Belt and Road Region Using Big Earth Data, chairing the Task Force for the High Mountain and Polar Cold Regions.

Antonio Quesada

Executive secretary

Spanish Polar Committee

Antonio Quesada’s work has been related to polar research since 1993, focusing in non-marine aquatic ecology and polar microbiology. He is partner in numerous international initiatives related to polar ecosystems, including SCAR, RiSCC and EBA. He is a member of the Editorial Board of international journals and a regular reviewer of international journals and national scientific funding agencies, also reviewing polar research programs. He has been the science director of the Spanish Polar Program for 4 years and now he is the executive secretary of the Spanish Polar Committee.

Eilís Quinn

Specialized Reporter

Eye on the Arctic/Regard sur l’Arctique, Radio Canada International

Eilís Quinn is a specialized journalist and manages Radio Canada International’s Eye on the Arctic circumpolar news project. At Eye on the Arctic, Eilís has produced documentary and multimedia series, for both television and the web, on climate change and the issues facing Indigenous people in the circumpolar world. Her series Bridging the Divide was a finalist at the 2012 Webby Awards. Eilís began her career in Yukon, Canada in 2001 and she has reported from Greenland, Alaska, Iceland and the Arctic regions of Canada, Russia and Norway.

Safia Qureshi

Founder and CEO

CupClub

Safia Qureshi is an award-winning architect, innovation designer and educator. She graduated in architecture from University College London with First Class Honours and went on to do a Masters at the Royal College of Art. She has worked as Lead Architect at Sheppard Robson and as a founder of the creative design agency Studio [D] Tale. The agency based in London and Cape Town focuses on projects with high social and environmental impact in both emerging and established markets. It served as an incubator to launch CupClub. CupClub was born of Safia’s interest in technology and design and how their intersection can boost the circular economy. She is passionate about empowering other founders, designers and technologists (women in particular) to think circular.

Volker Rachold

Head

German Arctic Office

Dr. Volker Rachold is the Head of the German Arctic Office, which serves as an information and cooperation platform between German stakeholders from science, politics and industry. His functions include managing the dialogue between German Arctic players, supporting the federal ministries interested in Arctic matters, coordinating Germany´s scientific input to the Arctic Council and planning and implementing national and international Arctic-related events and projects. Before moving to the German Arctic Office in 2017, he served as the Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) since 2006. Dr. Rachold graduated as a geochemist from Göttingen University, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in 1994. Since then he worked with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. His research focused on land-ocean interactions in the Siberian Arctic and he led several land- and ship-based Russian-German expeditions.

Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen

Associate Professor

Institute of Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College

Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen is an associate professor at the Institute of Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College. His research interests include Danish foreign and defense policy, European Security, Arctic politics, and civil-military relations. He edited Greenland and the International Politics of a Changing Arctic – Postcolonial Paradiplomacy between High and Low Politics (Routledge, 2017) with Kristian S. Kristensen. Dr. Rahbek-Clemmensen has previously held positions at the Danish Institute for International Studies and the University of Southern Denmark, as well as visiting positions at Columbia University and the Center for Strategic International Studies

Stefan Rahmstorf

Professor

Potsdam University

Professor Stefan Rahmstorf - Potsdam University, Germany is an oceanographer and climatologist. Since 2000, he has been a Professor of Physics of the Oceans at Potsdam University. His work focuses on the role of ocean currents in climate change. He was one of the lead authors of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. He has published over 100 scientific papers (30 of which in the leading Nature and Science journals and PNAS) and co-authored four books. In 2017 he was the first scientist outside the US to be awarded theClimate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union.

Annelien Ramakers

M.A Candidate in Polar Law

University of Akureyri

Annelien Ramakers is a candidate for the M.A. in Polar Law at the University of Akureyri.

She is a graduate of the Erasmus Mundus Master programme on Euroculture at the Universities of Groningen, Netherlands and Göttingen, Germany. Her interest in the law of

the sea and the high seas was kindled as soon as she had her first introduction to the topic. Having worked on high seas environmental impact assessments for, and with, the WWF High Seas Core Working Group, and doing research for Arctic MPA proposals as a student assistant at WFF, she is now finalizing her masters thesis on the Arctic high seas.

Andreas Raspotnik

Senior Researcher, Senior Fellow

High North Center at Nord University Business School in Bodø, The Arctic Institute in Washington, DCd

Andreas Raspotnik is a Senior Researcher at the High North Center at Nord University Business School in Bodø (Norway) and a Senior Fellow at The Arctic Institute in Washington, DC (USA). He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo (Norway). He received his jointly-awarded PhD in Political Science from the University of Cologne, Germany, and the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom in October 2016. His book on The European Union and the Geopolitics of the Arctic was published by Edward Elgar in January 2018.

Madeleine Redfern

Mayor

Iqaluit, Nunavit

Madeleine Redfern, LLB, was born in Iqaluit, Nunavut (formerly, Frobisher Bay, NWT). She is currently the Mayor of the City of Iqaluit for her second term. Madeleine has a strong commitment to her community, and she strives to be accessible, responsive and accountable. Madeleine has 30 years of experience working on issues related to housing, education, employment and training, justice, community services, preschool child care, health care, business and economic development, and governance. She is a graduate of the Akitsiraq law school with a law degree from the University of Victoria. After graduating, she worked at the Supreme Court of Canada for Madam Justice Charron, and then as a legal researcher with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Executive Director of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission and is the Chair of Nunavut’s Legal Services Board. In these capacities she has done extensive work in the areas of governance, law, legislation and policy. Madeleine’s expertise is grounded in partnership-building and developing local capacity towards fulfilling the goal of self-government and good governance. She has a record of working with industry, governments, aboriginal organizations and communities, helping to assess and identify strategies and approaches for better outcomes. Madeleine is also President of the Ajungi Group, Northern Robotics, and Nuvujaq.

Nathan Reigner

Principal

Recreation & Tourism Science

Nathan Reigner is Principal of Recreation & Tourism Science and a consulting social scientist experienced in applied protected area management. Nathan is a Fulbright Scholar of the Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Science Foundation’s Arctic Research Program, Research Fellow of the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center, and member of the Transportation Research Board’s Standing Committee on the Transportation Needs of National Parks and Public Lands.

Janet Reiser

Executive Director

Alaska Energy Authority

The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) is the State of Alaska Energy Office, providing technical, financial, and project development assistance to improve community energy safety, reliability and affordability. Janet serves on the Governor’s Climate Cabinet Team, working alongside the Climate Action Leadership Team to recommend a comprehensive Alaska climate policy and action plan. Prior to joining AEA, Janet spent 9 ½ years on the Board of Directors at Chugach Electric, Alaska’s largest electric utility. Janet has been in Alaska for over thirty years, serving in technical and executive management roles in the telecom, construction, and engineering industries. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder

Anni Reissell

Guest Research Scholar, Science Coordinator

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA and University of Helsinki

Dr. Anni Reissell is Guest Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) located in Laxenburg, Austria, and Science Coordinator at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She holds a PhD in chemistry, with thesis on ambient air and chamber studies on biogenic volatile organic compounds linking emissions, chemistry, meteorology and topography in the Los Angeles Basin area. Her diverse background includes radiopharmaceuticals, natural radioactivity, air quality measurements of inorganic and organic compounds, aerosol particles, development of methods and quality control procedures for sampling and analysis. Previous positions include research scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, research chemist at the Air Pollution Research Center, University of California, Riverside, and Executive Director of the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS). Dr. Reissell’s interests are broad and encompass integrated land-ecosystem atmosphere processes in relation to climate change and global change, currently socio-economics as well. She has over 20 years’ experience in chemistry and measurements, as well as global change research, international global change research programs and policies. Her experience also encompasses, for example, reviews of proposals and scientific articles, academic lectures and courses, supervising MSc and PhD students as well as other scientific and technical personnel. During her career, Anni Reissell has brought together scientific communities to work on new lines of thinking, across disciplinary and community boundaries.

Hans-Kristian Ringkjøb

PhD Candidate

University of Bergen

Hans-Kristian Ringkjøb is a PhD candidate at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Bergen, where he carries out a modelling study on the future energy system in Longyearbyen. Hans-Kristian has modelled Longyearbyen’s energy system from today until 2050, aiming to identify possible alternatives for Longyearbyen to become a city supplied with renewable energy sources.

Katrín Björg Ríkarðsdóttir

Director

Icelandic Centre for Gender Equality

In 2017 Katrín Björg Ríkarðsdóttir was appointed the director for the Icelandic Centre for Gender Equality which is a national bureau in charge of administering the Act on Equal Status and Equal Rights of Women and Men No. 10/2008. Katrín Björg’s background is in educational research with special emphasis on gender equality. She was a special adviser at the Centre for Gender Equality 2000-2003, a Gender Equality adviser at the Municipality of Akureyri 2003-2006, director for the department of leisure, sports and human rights at the Municipality of Akureyri 2006-2014 and an assistant to the Mayor of Akureyri 2014-2017.

Owen Roberts

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

As a field engineer and analyst, Owen’s primary focus is in applications engineering and deployment assistance. Owen worked in the utility scale wind industry in the US and Central America prior to joining NREL. Owen is an expert in wind resource assessment, turbine construction transportation as well as hybrid power system integration.  He has worked on hybrid power systems and microgrids in Africa, Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland, the Caribbean, as well as many systems around the world for the Department of Defense and other federal entities. Owen also assists organizations in the deployment of wind technologies and provides information on the appropriate implementation of wind  energy.

Carmine Robustelli

Special Envoy for the Arctic

Italy

18/12/1985 – University Degree in Political Science, Istituto Universitario Orientale,
Naples
15/02/1998 – Joins the Italian Diplomatic Service.
1988/1992 – Second Secretary, Division for Eastern Europe, Directorate General for
Economic Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
1992/1996 – First Secretary, Italian Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil
1996/1999 – Counsellor, Italian Permanent Representation to the European Union,
Brussels
2000-2004 – Head of the Division for Justice and Home Affairs, Directorate General
for European Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2004/2008 – First Counsellor, Head of Trade and Economic Department, Italian
Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina
2008/2010 – Head of Visa Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2011/2012 – Deputy Director General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policy /
Director for migratory issues and visas - Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2012/2016 – Ambassador of Italy to the Republic of Cuba
2017 – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation - Directorate
General for the European Union - Staff of the Director General
2018 – Special Envoy for the Arctic - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation

James Rogers

Assistant Professor

University of Southern Denmark

James is Assistant Professor in War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. He has previously been a visiting fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford and Associate Lecturer in International Politics at the University of York. His research focuses on drone warfare, contemporary security policy, and the history of warfare.

Alice N. Rogoff

Publisher & Editorial Director

ArcticToday.com

Alice N. Rogoff is Publisher and Editorial Director of “ArcticToday.com,” and former Publisher /owner of Alaska Dispatch News. Ms. Rogoff co-founded the international forum “Arctic Circle,” together with former President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson of Iceland. Ms. Rogoff also chairs the Advisory Council of the Polar Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian and advises the Harvard Kennedy School on their newly-created Arctic Initiative.

Joe Roman

University of Vermont

Joe Roman is a conservation biologist and author at the University of Vermont. He is particularly interested in endangered species conservation, whale ecology, and island ecosystems: Joe grew up on Long Island, New York, and has worked in Cuba, Japan, Baranof Island in Alaska, and many other islands. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Brazil and a Rachel Carson Environment Book Award for his book Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act. In Iceland, Joe is studying the movement of nutrients from high-latitude waters by migrating whales, a process dubbed the “great whale conveyor belt.”

Jane Rushton

Independent Artist

With an academic background in Art: Practice and Theory, Jane Rushton is currently an independent artist resident in Scotland. Her work engages with landscape and environment, and has over several decades been informed by field trips in Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, sometimes in the company of earth and atmospheric scientists. An interest in Art and Science in the Arctic has lead to invitations to talk and exhibit at EC meetings in Italy and Brussels. She has also exhibited numerous times in Greenland – where she has developed strong links with artists and galleries, as well as Denmark and throughout the UK.

Cristine Russell

Science Journalist; Senior Fellow

Environment & Natural Resources Program, Harvard Kennedy School

Cristine Russell is an award-winning science journalist who covers global research and policy on climate change, environment, energy and public health. She is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Environment & Natural Resources Program and an Adjunct Lecturer there on climate, energy and the media. Now a freelance writer, Russell was a national science reporter for The Washington Post. She is a past President of the U.S. Council for the Advancement of Science Writing and the National Association of Science Writers. She co-chaired the 2017 10 th World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco. This is her fourth HKS trip to the Arctic Circle Assembly.

Kristin Røymo

Mayor

Tromsø

Kristin Røymo is the mayor of the City of Tromsø, the capital of Troms County. Røymo represents the Labour Party. She was elected to the city board for the first time in 1999 and has in recent years served as group leader of the Labour Party in the city board. Røymo has also worked as a political adviser in Norway’s Foreign Ministry.

Røymo holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Transformation from the University of Tromsø. She currently is on leave of absence from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration while serving as a full-time politician.

Mirva Salminen

PhD student, political science

University of Lapland

Researcher Mirva Salminen conducts her doctoral study on digitalisation and cybersecurity in the European High North at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, Finland. Previously, she has carried out research for several organizations in both public and private sectors, including universities, research institutes and corporations, publishing primarily on cybersecurity and security commercialisation. Salminen holds M. Soc. Sc. degree in International Politics and B. Soc. Sc. in Political Science, both from the University of Tampere, Finland. Parts of her degrees she has completed in the US and in the UK.

Hilma Salonen

Doctoral Student

Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki

Hilma Salonen is a doctoral student in the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki and a member of the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). Her PhD examines the current developments of the Russian domestic energy policies from the viewpoint of renewable energy and energy efficiency, with an emphasis on the country’s Arctic regions.

Robert Sauvé

Former CEO

Société du Plan Nord

Robert Sauvé retired end of June 2018. He was then President and Chief Executive Officer of the Société du Plan Nord on April 1, 2015, after acting since May 2014 as the Associate Secretary General responsible for the Secrétariat au Plan Nord. He has held several senior positions within the Québec public service, which he joined in 1987. His career as a public administrator has been influenced, among other things, by his in-depth knowledge of Québec's territory and regions. His positions have included Associate Secretary General for Aboriginal affairs, Deputy Minister at the Ministère des Régions, and Associate Deputy Minister for regional and municipal affairs. He was also Deputy minister at the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, with responsibility for the Plan Nord from 2009 to 2012.

Robert Sauvé was born in Beauharnois and holds a Bachelor's degree in architecture from Université de Montréal and a Master's degree in urban and regional planning from Oxford Polytechnic in England.

He also pursued doctoral-level studies in land planning and regional development at Université de Montréal.

Mr. Sauvé retired last June 2018.

Hannele Savela

Transnational Access Coordinator

The International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic (INTERACT)

Hannele Savela works as the Transnational Access Coordinator for INTERACT, the International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic. In the field of international and arctic research collaboration and science policy, her activities include representation of INTERACT in the Group on Earth Observations Cold Regions Initiative, where she is one of the co-leads. Hannele is also the co-chair of the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks Committee of Observations and Networks. Co-operation in the University of the Arctic network and in the EU-PolarNet project are also close to her heart.  

Annette Scheepstra

Coordinator

Arctic Centre, University of Groningen

Annette Scheepstra has a background in social sciences and works as a coordinator of the Arctic Centre, University of Groningen Netherlands. She has represented the Netherlands in the Sustainable Development Working Group of the Arctic Council for many years. In the EU-PolarNet project she works on stakeholder engagement and makes sure that social sciences and humanities are well represented in the project. She has a lot of experience as a knowledge broker and working on the interface between science and communities. Besides her job at the university she also works as an expedition guide in Svalbard.

Jakob Erik Schmidt

Project Director

Arctic infrastructure Alliance

Jakob is the Project Director for the Arctic Infrastructure Alliance (AIA). The AIA is a commercially focused group of Greenlandic, Canadian and Danish companies seeking partnerships and commercial opportunities within Energy, Tele-com, logistics, port and road infrastructure. Through different positions in and out of Denmark, Jakob has previously assisted companies with their activities in the British, Czech and Danish markets.

Zachary Schulman

Arctic Policy Coordinator

Marine Transportation Systems Directorate (CG-5PW), U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters

Mr. Zachary Schulman currently serves as the Arctic Policy Coordinator for the United States Coast Guard, where he manages the daily activities and programmatic execution of Arctic policy across the Coast Guard enterprise to ensure safe, secure, and environmentally responsible maritime activity in the Arctic. A trained geographer and licensed attorney, Mr. Schulman’s personal and professional passions have focused on understanding and participating in the highly dynamic nexus of maritime governance, climate change, security, and transportation policymaking in the polar regions. His prior Coast Guard positions have included serving as the Federal Highway Administration Liaison and Arctic Policy Development Officer. In addition, he has represented the United States and Republic of Cape Verde at the United Nations on maritime security and environmental issues. Mr. Schulman is also a recipient of the Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Mr. Schulman earned his Juris Doctorate from Pace University School of Law, as well as a MA in Geography and BA in International Affairs and Geography from The George Washington University. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his partner TyAnn, where they love exploring new cultures and cuisines weekly.

Martin Schultz

Curator of the collections from North and Central America

National Museums of World Culture, Sweden

Martin Schultz is curator of the collections from North and Central America at the National Museums of World Culture in Sweden. He earned his M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, History, and Archaeology from the University of Frankfurt (Germany). His research focuses on material culture, history of collections, and intercultural education and museums. A current project explores the history of the Arctic collections from North America at the National Museums of World Culture (around 12,000 objects) and focuses on the kayaks and umiaks. It explores the use of the objects at the museum and brings them together with knowledge bearers from the Arctic.

Ethan Schutt

Chief of Staff

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

As ANTHC’s Chief of Staff, Ethan Schutt provides coordination and support to ensure proper prioritization and alignment of ANTHC resources to achieve the organization’s strategic goals and objectives, as well as assists in external communications. Prior to joining ANTHC, Mr. Schutt was the Senior Vice President of Land and Energy Development for Cook Inlet Region Inc. Mr. Schutt is Athabascan and hails from the Interior community of Tok. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in mathematics from Washington State University and a Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School.

Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz

Professor

Aarhus University

Professor Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz - Aarhus University, Denmark - is a marine geologist specialized in the past ocean and climate changes, in particular ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere-ice interaction. She is an expert in paleoclimate and paleoceanographic reconstructions based on micropaleontology and multi proxy analyses of marine sedimentary records. Her primary focus is on deciphering the processes driving climate variability, in particular ocean circulation and ocean-atmosphere interaction, the dynamics of decadal to millennial-scale climate variability, Arctic sea-ice variability and testing the linkages between climate and external forcing vs internal variability as well as the longer-term response of the biota to climate change.

Nikolas Sellheim

Visiting Researcher

Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science

Nikolas Sellheim has a Doctorate in Legal Cultures in Transnational world (LeCTra) from the University of Lapland and his research deals with the legitimacy of the European Union in Arctic Governance. The focus of his research is partially on the EU’s anti-sealing policy and it’s impact om the commercial sealers in Atlantic Canada, the changes of rules and codes of conduct that have emerged around commercial sealing based on the EU seal product import ban. Another part of the research deals with the notion of animal welfare in EU policymaking

Umiich Sengebau

Minister

Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism, Republic of Palau

The Hon. Umiich Sengebau was appointed and confirmed as the Minister for the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism for the Republic of Palau in February 2013. He’s responsible for the management, protection and development of Palau’s natural resources, including guiding the implementation of Protected Areas Network (PAN) program and the Palau National Marine Sanctuary initiative. Minister Sengebau also oversees the implementation of Palau’s tourism policy of targeting high-value tourism and the new toursim destination brand of Pristine Paradise. Palau.

Before joining President Remengesau’s administration, he served as the Deputy Director of Conservation of The Nature Conservancy-Micronesia Program. The Minister holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Science from the Univeristy of Guam and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology and Pacific Islands History from the University of Hawaii. He is a member of the Palau Conservation Society Board of Directors and the Palau Protected Areas Network Fund. He also served on the Environmental Quality Protection Board from 2003 to 2009.

Mike Sfraga

Director

Polar Initiative at the Wilson Center

Dr. Mike Sfraga is the director of the Polar Initiative at the Wilson Center. A geographer by training, his work is focused on the changing geography of the Arctic and Antarctic landscapes, Arctic policy, and the impacts and implications of a changing climate on social and political regimes in the Arctic. Sfraga previously served as vice chancellor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) as well as faculty member, department chair, and associate dean in the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension. He is a Fulbright Scholars, having served as co-lead scholar for the inaugural Fulbright Arctic Initiative 2015- 2017.

Jessica M. Shadian

CEO & Founder

Arctic360

Dr. Jessica M. Shadian is the CEO and Founder of Arctic360, a Canadian think tank that focuses on bringing together the public and private sectors alongside Indigenous development corporations and Northern Governments to address infrastructure and related economic development priorities for the North American Arctic. Prior to starting up Arctic360 Shadian spent the past 15 years living and working throughout the European and North American Arctic as an academic and consultant. In June 2017 she completed a 2-year Nansen Professorship at the U. of Akureyri, Iceland, co-funded with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Shadian is widely published and her expertise is regularly solicited by media outlets, policy makers, governments, the private sector, and think tanks throughout Europe, Canada, and the US. Shadian’s 2014 book entitled: The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice, and Inuit Governance (Routledge) is the first in depth history of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and Inuit sovereignty in global politics reaching back to pre- European discovery. Shadian was also the co-creator and organizer of the Arctic Dialogue series which brought together state and local political leaders, oil and gas and other industry leaders, local communities, and academia concerned with Arctic offshore oil and gas development to create and increase information sharing about Arctic resource development. Shadian holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance from the University of Delaware (2006) and wrote her Ph.D. dissertation at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), U. of Cambridge, UK on an NSF award.

Hugh S. Short

CEO

Pt. Capital

Hugh S. Short co-founded Pt Capital in January 2013. Mr. Short provides Fund investment oversight for both deployment and post-purchase management. He leads capital raises for the Fund and guides overall firm strategy. Mr. Short has 20 years of executive level experience and has closed $920 million in debt and equity investments in oil and gas, telecommunications, hospitality, real estate, and infrastructure throughout the target region. Mr. Short also serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, a state-owned entity responsible for the commercialization of Alaska’s. Prior to Pt Capital, Mr. Short was president and CEO of Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO, Inc., a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation. Alaska Governor Sean Parnell appointed Mr. Short to the Alaska Industrial Development Authority (AIDEA) and the Alaska Energy Authority in 2011. He was appointed chairman of AIDEA and led the multi-billion state-owned investment bank. Mr. Short is an Inupiaq. From 2002 to 2004 he served as the mayor of Bethel, Alaska, and is a board member for Rural Energy Enterprises. Mr. Short received a Bachelor’s in political science from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Gunnar Már Sigurfinnsson

Chief Commercial Officer

Icelandair

Gunnar Már Sigurfinnsson was appointed CCO of Icelandair in July 2018. He became MD of Icelandair Cargo in May 2008. Before that time, he was SVP of Sales and Marketing at Icelandair from 2005-2008. Gunnar Már worked as General Manager of the Germany, Netherlands & Central Europe regions from 2001-2005 and he was Sales Officer for Icelandair in Germany from 1997-2000.  Gunnar has served in various other positions within the Company from the year 1986.

Ásta Kristín Sigurjónsdóttir

CEO

Iceland Tourism Cluster

Ásta Kristín is the Managing Director of the Iceland Tourism Cluster that is a business driven organization with over 50 members. The main objective of the Tourism Cluster Initiative is to promote competitiveness and value creation within the Icelandic tourism industry, and to develop a co-operating forum for different stakeholders where the focus is on linking them together and opening up for interaction between them. One of the Clusters focus project is running the Responsible Tourism initiative together with Festa. Ásta has a BSc in International Business and Marketing from the University of Reykjavík and an IMPA certificate in project management.

Charles-Olivier Simard

PhD student in Demography

Université de Montréal

Charles-Olivier Simard, a PhD student at Université de Montréal, studies the links between housing shortage and demographics in Inuit Nunangat (the Canadian Arctic area where Inuit people live). After completing a master’s degree in anthropology, he started his PhD in demography in 2017. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, his thesis seeks to give Inuit’s organizations a better understanding of the demographic causes and consequences of the current housing crisis.

Skúli Skúlason

Professor

Hólar University College

Dr. Skúlason is a biologist, B.S. from the University of Iceland 1981, M.Sc.(1986) and Ph.D. (1990) from the University of Guelph, Canada, and in 1991 a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a professor at Hólar University College and was the rector of the school 1999-2012. He studies the ecology and evolution of biological diversity of freshwater fishes, with a focus on Arctic charr. He  is interested in philosophical, educational, management and conservational aspects of dynamic nature, and has participated in applied work in Iceland concerning energy operations, aquaculture and fisheries.

Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek

Researcher

University of Lapland and Finnish Environment Institute

Malgorzata (Gosia) Smieszek is a political scientist and a researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland and at the Marine Research Center, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in Finland. In her research she studies effectiveness of international environmental regimes, Arctic governance and science-policy interfaces. Gosia was a chair of International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) action group on communicating Arctic science to policy- makers (2017-2018). The most recent project she has been working on is “Finland’s Arctic Council chairmanship in times of increasing uncertainty” for Finland’s Prime Minister Office (2016-2018). She is a co-lead of the “Women of the Arctic”.

Adam Smith

Postdoctoral Investigator

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Adam Smith completed his B.S. degree in Biology in 2009 from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2017, where his doctoral research focused on hearing, echolocation, and acoustic communication in dolphins and whales. He is currently a Postdoctoral Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he continues to study acoustic communication in whales, as well as acoustic ecology and sensory biology in diving seabirds. When not working, Adam enjoys outdoor sports like surfing, snowboarding, and running, but also likes strategy board games and video games.

Jennifer Spence

Fellow

Arctic Program, CIGI

Dr. Jennifer Spence is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration and a Fellow with the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Canada. Jennifer holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Carleton University, a Master of Arts from Royal Roads University in conflict management and analysis, and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in political science from the University of British Columbia. An expert in international governance, institutional effectiveness and public policy, Jennifer has a particular interest in the opportunities and challenges facing Arctic region.  Her current research is focused on mapping and understanding the role Global Policy Advisory Systems in global and domestic policymaking process.

Jannie Staffansson

Advisor in Arctic Environmental Unit

The Saami Council

Staffansson is working with international environmental issues relevant for Indigenous Peoples, advocating for respecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, for Climate Justice and for the appropriate cooperation between Indigenous Knowledge and modern science. Staffansson is representing The Saami Council in different international fora, in the Arctic Councils working group Arctic Monitoring and assessment program and in different Expert groups and Task forces. Staffansson is the Arctic Global Steering Committee member in the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, participating in the UNFCCC process. When Staffansson is not working she is with her reindeers, both in Eajra and in Duorbbun.

Sandy Starkweather

Executive Director

US Arctic Observing Network, NOAA-CIRES

Sandy Starkweather

Executive Director, US Arctic Observing Network, NOAA-CIRES

Sandy Starkweather is the Executive Director for the US Arctic Observing Network (US AON, NOAA-chaired), where she advances US agency participation in partnered arctic observing activities and works with these agencies towards a framework concept for sustained Arctic observing. With a joint background in engineering (energy conservation, renewables), earth science (Arctic climatology) and science policy, Sandy has worked in a consulting engineering capacity, university research, project management and planning. During this time, she spent twelve years traveling to/from Greenland to either participate in or support Arctic field research. Sandy maintains a strong interest in addressing systemic challenges within the Arctic research enterprise, particularly through building stronger collaborations among all parties.

Kathrin Stephen

Scientific Project Leader

Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS)

Dr Kathrin Stephen (née Keil) is Scientific Project Leader at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany, where she leads the Arctic research project GloCAST (Global Change and Arctic Sustainable Transformations). GloCAST uses the Arctic as a prominent case to illustrate interrelations between global and regional change processes and between stakeholders from within and outside the Arctic. Kathrin received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany. She is Senior Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of The Arctic Institute – Center for Circumpolar Security Studies and part of the German observer delegation to the Sustainable Development Working Group of the Arctic Council.

Mark CJ Stoddart

Associate Professor

Department of Sociology at Memorial University

Mark CJ Stoddart is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University, Canada. Dr. Stoddart’s research interests are in environmental sociology, social movements, communications and culture. He is the Principal Investigator of the major project, The Oil-Tourism Interface and Social-Ecological Change in the North Atlantic. He also works extensively in the sociology of climate change, and is co-lead of the Canadian COMPON (Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks) team. His work has appeared in an extensive range of Canadian and international sociology and environmental social science journals.

Kjell Stokvik

Managing Director

Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL )

Kjell Stokvik is the Managing Director of the Centre for High North Logistics (CHNL ) with their HQ located in Kirkenes, Norway. Mr. Stokvik has previously worked with finance, logistics, foreign policy issues related to humanitarian aid and development aid. He have also gained experience managing NGO’s in complexed relief operations both in the field and at HQ. Prior to joining the CHNL Mr.Stokvik worked as Humanitarian director for CARE International in Oslo. Mr Stokvik is originally from Leknes in Lofoten, Norway He has a Master’s degree in Business and Administration from the Nord University in Bodø Norway. He has also studied in Sweden and at other universities in Norway.

Enooyaq Sudlovenick

MSc Student

Univ of Prince Edward Island (Canada)

A Master of Science student at the Atlantic Veterinary College in the University of Prince Edward Island, Enooyaq studying Veterinary medicine with a focus on pathology and microbiology on Ringed Seals in Frobisher Bay, Nunavut. Her research incorporates aspects of western science, through quantitative methods in heavy metal and pathogen analysis in Ringed Seal tissues, with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit traditional knowledge), through close collaboration with hunter and elders. With a background in marine and freshwater biology, and life experience growing up hunting and camping in the Canadian Arctic , she hopes to link both forms of knowledge to create a productive environment for community-based research.

Tetsuo Sueyoshi

Research Administrator, National Institute of Polar Research (NiPR); Science Coordinator

Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS), Japan

Dr. Tetsuo Sueyoshi
Research Administrator of National Institute of Polar Research (NiPR)
Science Coordinator of Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) Japan

Dagfinnur Sveinbjörnsson

CEO

Arctic Circle

Founder and chairman of the Climate Research Foundation, a not for profit organization established for the purposes of initiating and sustaining regional and international collaboration on scientific research on the nature and consequences of climate change. This work has focused primarily on the Himalaya-Third Pole region and involved collaboration with governments and major scientific institutes across the region, namely in India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan.

Read philosophy, history and economics and received graduate training in the political economy of development. Educated at the University of Iceland, Trinity College, Cambridge, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and was a fellow at Harvard University.

Won a number of independent fellowships, among them the British Chevening Scholarship, the Fulbright fellowship and the Sweetland writing fellowship.

Taught classes and seminars on, among other themes, the Political Economy of Development, The Politics of India and South Asia and Political Philosophy.

René Söderman

Senior Arctic Official

Finland

Mr. René Söderman joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1998 and has since worked with media relations, trade and development policy, European affairs and since 2013 as Senior Adviser on Arctic cooperation. He is the Senior Arctic Official of his country and represents Finland in the Arctic Council. He has been posted in Norway, United States and Mexico. Previously he worked as journalist in both press and TV. He holds a Master of Science in Economics from Hanken Business School in Helsinki.

Lise Lotte Sørensen

Associate Professor

Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University

Lise Lotte Sørensen holds a PhD in atmospheric physics and chemistry from Copenhagen University. She is an Associate Professor at the Arctic Research Centre, Dep. Bioscience, Aarhus University. Her research interests include climate forcing from greenhouse gases and aerosols plus feedback mechanisms; atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemical cycling with an emphasis on carbon and nitrogen cycling and atmosphere-surface exchange of CO2, CH4 and N-species in the marine and coastal areas with special focus on the Arctic; as well as gas-particle reactions, particle formation and transformation.

Jacob Nitter Sørensen

CEO

Air Greenland

Originally a pilot, Mr. Sørensen has been part of the Greenlandic airline since 2000. Apart from holding several previous positions in the company, he is part owner and board member of Autonord Service ApS as well as previously being the chairman of Greenland’s Pilots union. Before becoming CEO of Air Greenland, Mr. Sørensen was director of flight operations.

Jákup Sørensen

Senior Advisor

NORA

NORA is an intergovernmental organization under the regional cooperation program of the Nordic Council of ministers. It brings together Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Costal Norway and contributes to making the North Atlantic a strong and dynamic region characterized by robust sustainable economic development. Jákup Sørensen has worked as senior advisor for NORA since 2006 and is appointed as Faroese Regional Contact Point to the EU programme Northern Periphery Program (NPP) by the Faroese Government.

Pavel G. Talalay

Director

Polar Research Center at Jilin University, Changchun, China

Prof. Pavel G. Talalay is Director of Polar Research Center at Jilin University, Changchun, China. He earned Drilling Engineer (1984), PhD (1995) and Doc. Eng. (2007) degrees in exploration engineering from St.-Petersburg State Mining Institute, Russia, where he previously worked as Professor and Chair of the Dept. His research interests are associated with different aspects of drilling technology in Polar Regions. He is the author of more than 180 publications including 5 scientific monographs, 8 textbooks for students, 32 SCI papers, 27 patents.

Ryan Taylor

Founder

CuanTec Ltd.

CuanTec was established by Ryan in January 2017, as a blue biotechnology company within the circular economy.  CuanTec’s primary aim is to upcycle fisheries waste to create compostable, antibacterial bio-plastic packaging.   Public awareness of the plastic pollution crisis has driven retailers to re-evaluate their packaging materials and move towards recyclable and compostable alternatives.  CuanTec are currently developing their bio-plastic as a food packaging material, creating a viable alternative to traditional plastics used by the food industry, while also diverting a waste product from landfill.  CuanTec have created an industrially viable, biological process of extracting chitin from crustacean waste and converting it to chitosan-based bio-plastic film.

Belinda Theriault

Executive Director

Fulbright Commission Iceland

Belinda Theriault holds an M.A. in International Relations from  Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and an MBA  from Reykjavik University. Her career has focused on international cooperation, including 13 years working on international issues at the Icelandic Parliament, thereof ten years as Director of the International Department, where she was i.a. responsible for Arctic cooperation. She also spent three years working for EFTA in Brussels and has worked as a consultant.  She has led the Fulbright Commission in Iceland as Executive Director since 2011, during which time the Arctic has become a major focus of the Commission‘s work.

Hanne Thomasen

Project Developer and Research Coordinator

DTU Space, Danish Technical University

Hanne Thomasen is a project developer and research coordinator at Danish Technical University. Her various affiliations include the National Space Institute and PolarDTU where she focuses on innovation and a research-based consultancy.

Richard C. Thompson

Professor of Marine Biology, Director of the Marine Institute

University of Plymouth.

Much of his work over the last decade has focused on marine debris with numerous publications and significant research funding on this topic. He was a co-author of the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive text on marine litter. He has been a member of numerous international working groups on marine litter including GESAMP, NCEAS, UNEP, UNIRP. In 2014 he presented his research to the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, at his Our Ocean meeting in Washington. He has also presented to OECD nations and G7 nations. Recent work by his team directly informed the UK Government decision to introduce legislation on the use of microplastics in cosmetics. He has recently been working with G7 nations on the monitoring of marine litter. In 2017 Thompson received the Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation for his work on plastics; and was recognised in the New Year Honours List, with an OBE for services to Marine Science. He leads the International Marine Litter Research Unit at Plymouth.

Sheridan Thompson

PhD Student

Interdisciplinary PhD program with subdisciplines that include physical geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

Sheridan Thompson lives on the island of Newfoundland, Canada with her two children. Her education has been focused on environmental studies, physical sciences, experiential education and is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in the ontology of Nature and coastal geomorphology. Although raised in the Prairies of Canada where Sheridan was inspired by the shorelines of lakes and the atmospheric skies that the prairies are so well known for, she was later drawn to the North Atlantic coast of Newfoundland to pursue her studies and raise her children in the remote natural landscape.

Andrea Tilche

Unit Climate Action and Earth Observation

Head

Andrea Tilche obtained his Doctor Degree in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Milano in 1978. His scientific career was mainly carried out in Italy where he set-up and directed the wastewater treatment laboratories of ENEA in Bologna. In 1998 he moved to the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission as Head of the Water Research Unit, and later to Brussels to lead the Water Key Action in the 5th Framework Programme. Since 2010 he heads the Unit “Climate Action and Earth Observation”. He represents the EU at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and in other international fora.

Elmer Topp-Jørgensen

Head, FARO Secretariat; & Coordinator

INTERACT Station Managers’ Forum

Elmer Topp-Jørgensen is an experienced coordinator of national and international science and logistics cooperations. He is heading the FARO Secretariat where over 20 countries share information on Arctic research infrastructure developments and logistics. As a coordinator of the INTERACT Station Managers’ Forum he has worked with managers of over 80 research stations to produce books on best practices of station management and the science that goes on at these stations. He also runs the secretariat of GEM (Greenland Ecosystem Monitoring), coordinating research, monitoring and logistics of one of the most comprehensive long-term climate and ecosystem monitoring initiatives in the Arctic.

Mead Treadwell

Anchorage, Alaska

Mead Treadwell has advanced Arctic cooperation, cross-border investment, and environmental protection and marine safety from positions in government, business, and the academy. As Lt. Governor of Alaska, 2010-2014, he continued work he’d begun as Alaska’s second highest cabinet official for the environment (1990-1994), and as Commissioner and Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission (2001 appointed by President Bush; 2006-2010 chair under Presidents Bush and Obama) to promote Arctic cooperation with creation of the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, the Arctic Council and the Northern Forum. The Arctic Research Commission led the eight-nation Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment which resulted in the first circumpolar binding agreements on search and rescue, spill response, and adoption of the mandatory Polar Code. As a business leader, Treadwell pioneered cross- border tourism in the Bering Straits region in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, after working to open the US-Russia border.  He served as President of Pt Capital, the world’s first Arctic focused private equity fund from 2015-2018, which owns assets in Alaska, Iceland and Finland and conducts work in Greenland and Canada. He was Vice President and Treasurer of Yukon Pacific Corporation, Alaska’s first attempt to export North Slope LNG to Asian markets. As a tech entrepreneur he co-founded two listed firms, including Digimarc (NASDAQ: DMRC), Immersive Media, formerly a TVX listed firm which pioneered StreetView for Google. He chairs Iridium’s Polar Advisory Board, co-chairs the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Polar Initiative, the Arctic Circle’s Mission Council on Shipping and Ports, and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global  Action Council on the Arctic.

Cory Trépanier

Artist / Filmmaker / Explorer

Cory Trépanier is based in Caledon, Ontario, Canada. His fine art career spans two decades and has always been intertwined with his passion for the outdoors. In 2001, he began shooting his painting expeditions, and now has four televised documentaries, which include A Painter’s Odyssey, Into The Arctic, Canadian Screen Award-nominated Into The Arctic II, and TrueWild: Kluane. In 2018, Into The Arctic 3: The Last Chapter completes his Into The Arctic trilogy.

Sergio C. Trindade

President

SE2T International, Ltd. sustainable business consultants

Sergio C. Trindade is a Brazilian/American global consultant on sustainable business with an accent on energy, environment and technology management with a vast international experience. He is a former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Science and Technology. He contributed to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – IPCC, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -MIT he earned a PhD, ChE, MSc, in chemical engineering, with minors in energy economics, technology management and international business. He has been a resident of the USA for over 30 years.

Aleksey Tsykarev

Independent Expert

UN

Alexey Tsykarev has gone from being a member of the youth organization Nuori Karjala (Young Karelia) to heading the International Youth Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples, which includes 50 public organizations of Russia, Finland, Hungary and Estonia. He is an independent expert possessing local, national and international experience and expertise. In March 2013, he became a member of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, an advisory body for the United Nations Human Rights Council, in 2014 appointed as the vice-chair, and in July 2015 elected as the Chair-Rapporteur of the Expert Mechanism.

Laurence Tubiana

CEO

European Climate Foundation (ECF)

Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF). In addition to her role at ECF, she is the Chair of the Board of Governors at the French Development Agency (AFD), and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. Before joining ECF, Laurence was France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and as such a key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement. Following COP21, she was appointed High Level Champion for climate action. From 1997—2002, Laurence served as Senior Adviser on the Environment to the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. From 2009—2010, she created and led the newly established Directorate for Global Public Goods at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She founded in 2002 and directed until 2014 the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). She has held academic positions including Sciences Po and as Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. She has been a member of numerous boards and scientific committees, including the Chinese Committee on the Environment and International Development (CCICED).

Salome Tupou

Lecturer

Pacific Catalyst, University of the South Pacific (USP)

Salome is a Lecturer in Ocean Resources Management where she teaches Marine Resource Economics and Integrated Coastal Zone Management courses. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Public Administration from the University of the South Pacific in 2005.  She obtained her Masters and Ph.D in Fisheries Economics from the Kagoshima University, Japan in 2014. Her research was on the supply chain and marketing of fresh tuna, mainly from the Pacific Island countries and Japan. She has extensive knowledge of the distribution systems for tuna in the Japanese market. Salome’s research interest now is geared towards the use of rights-based management to manage the marine resources in the Pacific Island countries. Her focus is on improving the values derived from the use of marine resources, particularly to communities, through improved management and governance. 

Lauri Turpeinen

PhD student

European Ethnology, University of Helsinki

Lauri Turpeinen was born in 1987 in Southern Germany. After finishing school, he completed the BA-program "Comparative Studies of Cultures and Religions" at the University of Marburg with the minor "Peace and Conflict Studies". Afterwards, he obtained a Master's degree in "Intercultural Communication Studies" at the European-University Viadrina in Frankfurt(Oder). After completion, he decided to move to Finland, as he wanted to get to know this country better of which he also is a citizen. In 2015, he started a PhD project at the University of Helsinki, in which he explores the effects rural depopulation has on young people.

Julie Uldam

Associate Professor

Roskilde University

Julie Uldam is an Associate Professor at Roskilde University. Her research explores the relationship between online media and civic engagement from three avenues of enquiry: (1) challenges to political contestation, (2) corporate practices of managing visibility and legitimacy, and (3) how a shift of responsibility to civil society can be made possible in sustainable ways.

Fran Ulmer

Chair

U.S. Arctic Research Commission

Fran Ulmer is chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, where she has served since March 2011. From 2007 to 2011, Ms. Ulmer was chancellor of Alaska's largest public university, the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Ms. Ulmer served as an elected official for 18 years as the mayor of Juneau, a state representative, and as Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. In addition, she was the first Chair of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council and served for more than 10 years on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.

Maria Utsi

Director

Arctic Arts Festival, Harstad, Norway

Maria Utsi is the director of the Arctic Arts Festival in Harstad, Norway. The festival is an Arctic event with ambitions of becoming the world´s most important arts festival for the entire Arctic region. With strong profiles of northern arts and culture, the festival produces and presents innovative projects across genres every year. Maria Utsi has worked across the Arctic to promote arts and culture as a key factor in the development of the North. She has a broad network across all the Arctic countries, and was a driving force behind the Arctic Arts Summit, the first summit and conference where all eight Arctic countries participated to highlight circumpolar arts and culture, in Harstad, Norway. Utsi is a member of the Norwegian Arts Counsil, and was the festival director of the jazz festival Varangerfestivalen until 2016. She studied theatre science at the University of Bergen.

Vlada Valchenko

Public Relations Specialist

Beringia National Park

Vlada Valchenko is a public relations specialist at Beringia National Park, Chukotka. She coordinates projects aiming at building cooperation between local communities and protected areas and rising local people's awareness of the importance of nature protection. Vlada has worked at the ecological education and tourism department of Kurilskiy Nature Reserve in the Sakhalin region and press secretary for the Commander Islands Biosphere Reserve, Kamchatka.

Shulga Valerii

Professor

Jilin University

Prof. Shulga Valerii is an academician of NAS of Ukraine (2006). He received his PhD degree from Kharkiv National University, Ukraine in 1972 in the field of Electronic Engineering and Quantum Electronics. He was a corresponding member of NAS of Ukraine (1997) and the head of the department of millimeter radio astronomy in Institute of radio-astronomy. He was awarded in Ukraine the order "For Merits" of the III degree (2008), the diploma of the Supreme Council of Ukraine (2010) and Government Friendship Award of China (2016). His main research interests include radio astronomy and astrophysics, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, microwaves and quantum electronics, electronics for the decimeter range and physics of atmosphere.

Tero Vauraste

President, CEO

Arctia Ltd

Mr. Tero Vauraste is the President and CEO of Arctia Ltd., a Finnish shipowner with eight icebreakers. Arctia provides icebreaking, offshore and other versatile maritime services globally. Mr. Vauraste’s educational background includes a Master of Science in Risk, Crises and Disaster Management from Leicester University and a naval officer exam from the Finnish Naval Academy. Mr. Vauraste also serves as Chair of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC), an independent organization established in 2014 that facilitates business-to-business activities and responsible economic development in the Arctic. The AEC provides advice and a business perspective to the work of the Arctic Council.

Florian Vidal

PhD candidate

Paris Descartes University

Florian Vidal is a Ph.D. candidate at Paris Descartes University, France. His working thesis is entitled, “Norway-Russia relations in the Arctic: Perspective and analysis of a regional dynamic in the Anthropocene era”. His primary research interests include Anthropocene and Arctic dynamics, governance of complexity and Northern Europe. Previously, he served for the French cultural delegation in Russia (2008-2010) before to spend some time in South America (NGO activities). Between 2013 and 2017, he worked as a Senior Business Analyst for strategic investments in value chain industry and emerging technologies (transportation, energy and communication) both in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Luis Alberto Villegas

Senior Research Fellow

Fletcher School's Maritime Studies Program

Luis Alberto Villegas is a Senior Research Fellow at the Fletcher School's Maritime Studies Program where he researches sustainable supply chains. He has 18 years of experience in rural development, peace building, and climate change policy, both in the public and private sector. He recently served as Deputy Manager of the Colombian Government's US$3 billion Climate Change Adaptation Fund. Previously he was a co-founder and Executive Director of VallenPaz, a successful entrepreneurship initiative that has supported over 16,000 small farmer families in conflict zones in Colombia and was featured at the Colombian peace negotiations in Havana. He holds an MBA and Agribusiness Engineering degree. He plans to develop a strong public-private partnership model to help Colombia become the world's largest sustainable avocado producer.

André Visser

Professor of Oceanography

Technical University of Denmark

Professor André Visser - Technical University of Denmark - is an oceanographer. He has worked extensively on bio-physical coupling in marine ecosystems from interactions at the scale of individual organisms to large scale processes involved in the biological carbon pump. His recent interests lie in developing trait-based descriptions of marine ecosystems and their emerging characteristics under climate change.

Simon Walmsley

Senior Specialist

Sustainable Development, WWF Arctic Programme

Simon Walmsley is Senior Specialist, Sustainable Development with the WWF Arctic Programme. Dr. Walmsley is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Marine Scientist, Fellow of IMarEST, and Associate Member, IEMA. He has almost 30 years’ experience in the marine science/policy interface, focusing on anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment. He has undertaken research at the British Antarctic Survey and the Institute of Coastal and Estuarine Studies and has worked in various positions with WWF for 20 years where he has advised the WWF Network on Extractive Industries and Shipping and is Head of delegation at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).  

Fanglu Wang

Senior Managing Director

CITIC Capital Partners

Mr. Fanglu Wang serves as the Senior Managing Director of CITIC Capital Partners. Mr. Wang served as the Head of Product Marketing & Sales for HSBC in China. He has over 16 years of experience in capital markets, corporate finance, financial engineering and derivatives. He served as a Vice President at Citibank Hong Kong and an Executive Director at Sakura Global Capital. Mr. Wang served as Director of Investment Banking & Debt Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch Asia. He serves as the Chairman of Kaixin Investment Co., Ltd. He has led several major capitals raising transactions for the China Ministry of Finance and other major corporations. Mr. Wang holds an M.A. in Statistics from the University of Chicago, a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Journalism from Fudan University in Shanghai.

Chenghai Wang

Professor

College of Atmospheric Science, Lanzhou University

Prof. Chenghai Wang has been working in College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, PRC. His research interests are Climate variability in Cold and Arid regions, Climate dynamics and prediction, Model and modeling, and Monsoon.

Peter Webley

Research Associate Professor

Remote Sensing at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Dr. Peter Webley is a Research Associate Professor of Remote Sensing at the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and is the Associate Director of Research at the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI). His research focuses on natural hazard mapping, the application of unmanned aircraft systems for geoscience research and operational support, and the use of remote sensing data from the ground to space to develop change detection algorithms. Also, Peter co-founded V-ADAPT, Inc. the first start-up company developed from UAF intellectual property that focuses on real- time decision support for volcanic hazard mapping and ash dispersion.

Janet Weiss

President

Alaska, BP Exploration Alaska Inc.

Janet Weiss was named president BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. in 2013. As President she is responsible for BP's oil and gas exploration, development and production activities in Alaska, as well as its interests in the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline and involvement progressing an Alaska LNG project. During her 32-year career, she has held various engineering and leadership positions in Alaska, North America Gas, global roles, and assignments such as Vice President Gulf of Mexico Shelf. Janet has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Oklahoma State University (OSU). She serves on the BP America Inc. Board of Directors. She is on the board of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association and serves on the University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor’s Board of Advisors. She is a member of the board of directors for both United Way and Covenant House Alaska.  She is married to Troy and has two adult children, Jessica and Stormy.

Rockford Weitz

Director of Maritime Studies

Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Rockford Weitz, Director of Maritime Studies, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), U.S.A. Professor Weitz is Director of the Maritime Studies Program and Entrepreneur Coach at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. He also serves as President and a Board Director at both the Institute for Global Maritime Studies Inc. and Blue Water Metrics Inc. A serial entrepreneur and angel investor, he was founding CEO of CargoMetrics from 2008 to 2013 and founding Executive Director of FinTech Sandbox Inc. in 2014. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Fletcher School, and a B.A. in International Relations: Political Economy from the College of William and Mary.

Leigh Welling

Associate Regional Director for Science, Communications, and Partnerships

National Park Service Alaska Region

Leigh Welling is Associate Regional Director for Science, Communications, and Partnerships in the US National Park Service (USNPS) Alaska Region, including oversight of the Shared Beringian Heritage Program. Leigh was Regional Chief Scientist for Alaska from 2015-2018 and was the first Chief for Climate Change Response in the USNPS from 2010-2015. She has been engaged in international conservation since 2011 and is the former co- chair of climate change working groups for IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas and the North American Intergovernmental Committee for Wilderness and Protected Area Conservation.

Amy Wiita

Subsistence Resource Specialist, Senior Interdisciplinary Research Scientist

State of Alaska Division of Subsistence, Cinza Research LLC

Amy Wiita is an interdisciplinary scientist who is a Subsistence Resource Specialist with the State of Alaska Division of Subsistence and the owner and Senior Interdisciplinary Research Scientist of Cinza Research. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Forestry and a doctoral degree in Cultural Anthropology. Dr. Wiita has over twenty years’ experience doing social, natural, and public health science research and natural resource management throughout Alaska. She specializes in interdisciplinary, ethnographic, and phenomenological community- based research focused on human dimensions of natural resource use, perceptions of place, connections between cultural expression and the environment, and the culture of climate change.

Jennifer Wilkie

CFHRO

Mitacs

Jennifer Wilkie is the CFHRO at Mitacs and has seen the organization grow from $25M in revenue when she started in 2008 to over $150M in 2018. Mitacs is an organization focused on creating networks, developing and deploying talent and stimulating innovation,  and is committed to addressing the self- determined needs and goals of Indigenous peoples/communities/organizations through our programs and targeted initiatives. Jennifer is a member of the Mitacs executive team and supports the strategic direction and operational mission and priorities.   She is a CA, CPA and alumni of SFU business program

Elana Wilson Rowe

Research Professor

Norwegian Institute for International Affairs

Dr. Elana Wilson Rowe is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and adjunct professor at Nord University. Her areas of research and publication include international relations in the Arctic, science and expert knowledge in global governance, climate politics and Russian foreign and northern policy. She is the author of Russian Climate Politics: When Science Meets Policy (Palgrave, 2013) and Arctic Governance: Power in cross-border cooperation (Manchester University Press, 2018).

Huang Xinchu

Executive Vice Chairman

Standing Committee, Sichuan Provincial People's Congress

Huang Xinchu, born in October 1957 in Xiaogan Hubei China. He begins to work in 1976 and graduated from Sichuan Union University (Sichuan University) with a doctor’s degree in economy. He served as Secretary of Chinese Communist Youth League Sichuan Committee, Party Secretary of Aba Prefecture, Member of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, Director of Propaganda Department of Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, Party Secretary of Chengdu Municipal. He is now the Vice Chairman and Deputy Party Secretary of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress.

Marilyn Yadultin Jensen

Performing Artist, Advocate, Speaker, Educator, Consultant

Yadultin & Dusts’adle, is Inland Tlingit/Tagish Khwáan from the Carcross/Tagish First Nation; belonging to the Dakhl'aweidí Clan under the Tagish Keét Hít (Killerwhale House) in the Southern Yukon Territory. She has taught Indigenous Governance at Yukon College and works closely with many Northern communities as a consultant focusing on Indigenous self-determination. She leads a traditional dance group: the Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, recipients of the National Indigenous Tourism Award and nominated for an Indigenous Music Award in 2018. Marilyn was honoured by the Governor General of Canada as a recipient of the Polar Medal for Cultural Reclamation. She has earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alaska and a M.A. in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria.

Liu Yang

Senior Research Fellow

Energy Studies Institute at the National University of Singapore

Dr. Liu Yang is a Senior Research Fellow in Energy Studies Institute at the National University of Singapore. He leads research in the areas of the integration of renewables and energy efficiency, and energy policy design and evaluation. Dr. Liu has a blend of operational and academic experience in the energy sector. He was previously an energy specialist at the International Energy Agency, where he co-authored the 2015 and 2016 IEA Global Energy Efficiency Market Reports, and provided technical assistance to the Chinese government and businesses to improve urban energy systems. He earned his Ph.D. in Energy Economics from the Ecole Polytechnique of France.

Tandong Yao

Professor, Member, Academician, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Co-Chair, Third Pole Environment (TPE); Director,

CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences (CETES)

Prof. Tandong Yao, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Co-Chair of the Third Pole Environment (TPE), Director of the CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences (CETES). Prof. Yao is a world-renowned glaciologist, and has recently been awarded the Vega Medal as a recognition for his scholarly excellence. His study of ice core revealed climate and environment changes in the Tibetan Plateau, and found that the last 30 years was the warmest period since 1900AD, and the last 100 years was the warmest period in the past two millenniums. His study throughout the Tibetan Plateau has revealed three modes of interactions between the westerlies and Indian monsoon. He has led more than a dozen expeditions to drill ice cores on the Tibetan Plateau and conducted large-scale in-situ observations. In 2018, Prof. Yao has launched the Strategic Priority A Research Program (2018-2022), the “Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road”.

Bogdan Zagajewski

Associated Professor

Warsaw University

Tingjun Zhang

Professor

College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University

Prof. Zhang obtained his Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 1993. He worked in the Geophysical Institute, UAF (1993-1996), and the National Snow and Ice Data Center of University of Colorado Boulder (1996-2015). Now Prof. Zhang is employed by Lanzhou University (2011-present).. Prof. Zhang was a lead author for the IPCC Working Group I Assessment Report 4 (2003-2008) and Assessment Report 5 (2010- 2014). He has long worked on cryosphere and climate change, such as permafrost, seasonally frozen ground, snow cover, and northern environments and their changes, and published about 300 peer reviewed articles.

Jin Zhijian

Ambassador

Embassy of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Iceland

2000 - 2002

Second Secretary, First Secretary, General Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

2002 - 2004

First Secretary/Consul, Consulate General of People's Republic of China in Chicago

2004-2008

Counsellor, Embassy of People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark

2008 - 2009

Counsellor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Chunxia Zhou

Professor

Wuhan University

Prof. Chunxia Zhou received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in geodesy and geomatics from the
Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping, Wuhan, China, in 1998 and 2000,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in solid earth geophysics from Wuhan University, Wuhan,
China, in 2005. She is currently a Professor with the Chinese Antarctic Center of Surveying
and Mapping, Wuhan University. She works on remote sensing and its application in Polar
Regions, and published over 60 journal papers. She has participated in fieldwork in
Antarctica and Svalbard for three times.

Wiesław Ziaja

Professor

Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

Wieslaw Ziaja is a Professor in physical geography at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland. He has worked in landscape ecological studies in Svalbard since 1982 and has broad experience in field expeditions. He is interested in environmental and landscape transformation under influence of current climate change. SE Spitsbergen coast, Sørkapp Land (southern Spitsbergen peninsula) and the mountains south of Longyearbyen are the main areas of his field work. He is a member of Committee for Polar Research in Polish Academy of Sciences and International Arctic Science Committee Terrestrial Working Group, and Vice-President of Polish Polar Consortium.

Jan Ziskasen

CEO

Føroya Tele, Faroese Telecom

Small, remote but among the best! An ambition for worldclass in everything is the vision of Jan Ziskasen, CEO at Faroese Telecom, and the cornerstone of the company strategy for the future. 

Jan Ziskasen is an accomplished and visionary technology executive with demonstrated success across several countries and business areas. He has over twenty years of international experience with large scale systems and technology transformations and operations. The majority of Jan's career has been spent with Kraft Foods (now Kraft Heinz), and he has lived in multiple countries during this time, including Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, and USA.

Gerald Zojer

Researcher, Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Centre; & PhD candidate in political science,

University of Lapland

Gerald Zojer is a researcher in the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law at the Arctic Centre, and PhD candidate in Political Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences, both at the University of Lapland. His research interests are on hegemony theories, sociology of technology studies, digitalisation, and political ecology, with a particular focus on the Arctic region. His most recent work relates to the interplays between socio-economic development in the Arctic with global economic trends and the adaptation to new technologies in the region.

Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær

Leader

University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Arctic Coastal Communities for Sustainability

Lau Øfjord Blaxekjær is an engaged scholar leading NIAS’ programme on Asia-Arctic relations. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen focusing on climate governance, green growth, sustainability, innovation, and science diplomacy. He developed and leads the Green Growth Dialogue, and is Leader of University of the Arctic’s Thematic Network on Arctic Coastal Communities for Sustainability. Lau is Associate Researcher at the University of the Faroe Islands, Adjunct Professor at Shanghai Ocean University, and is a member of The United Nations Office for Sustainable Development’s Expert Group on the green economy.

Willy Ørnebakk

Head

Troms County Government

Chair of Troms County Government, representing the Labour Party. Responsible for International Affairs. Previously the County Councillor for Health, Culture and Industry. Ørnebakk has been an active member of politics for several years, both at the local level in his home municipality of Storfjord, and at the regional level. He has also represented the Labour Party for 16 years in the Sami Parliament, from 1997 to 2013