Grete Faremo, Director, Microsoft Northern Europe
Grete Faremo has held a number of important posts in both the public and private sectors. She started her career in politics as a member of the Labour Party and became Minister of Development Cooperation in 1990 in the government of Gro Harlem Brundtland. In 1992 she was made Minister of Justice - a post she held until 1996, when she became Minister of Oil and Energy. 1997-2003, Grete Faremo worked with Norway’s largest insurance company, Storebrand, as Executive Vice President.
Dr Christian H. M. Ketels
Dr. Christian Ketels is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty at Professor Michael E. Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness. He holds a PhD (Econ) from the London School of Economics and further degrees from the Kiel Institute for World Economics and Cologne University. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and a Director of The Competitiveness Institute, a not-for-profit global network of cluster practitioners and researchers. Dr. Ketels has led cluster and competitiveness projects in many parts of the world, is a member of economic advisory groups in Europe, the Americas, and Asia, has written widely on economic policy issues, and is a frequent speaker on competitiveness and strategy issues. He lives with his wife and twin sons in Stockholm, Sweden and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Email contact: cketels@hbs.edu
Web sites: www.isc.hbs.edu, www.sse.edu/csc
Detailed CV: http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=ovr&facEmId=cketels
Sixten Korkman, Managing Director of the Finnish Business and Policy Forum, EVA
Sixten Korkman started his career as economist in the Bank of Finland in 1978. In 1981-1983 he worked in the OECD in France, whereafter he returned as Head of Bureau in the Bank of Finland until 1988, where he became Head of Department of Economics in the Finnish Ministry of Finance.
In 1995 he continued his carrer as Director General of DG G Economic and Social Affairs, General Secretariat of the Council of the EU for ten years, where he returned to become Managing Director of EVA.
Andrius Kubilius, Member of Lithuanian Parliament, Former Prime Minister of Lithuania
• Member of the Seimas, Deputy Chairman of the Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives) Committee on Budget and Finance, Member of Committee
• Committee on European Affairs, Member of Committee
• Parliamentary Group of the Homeland Union - Conservatives, Elder of a Parliamentary Group
• Assembly of Elders, Member
• Seimas Delegation to the European Union and the Republic of Lithuania Joint Parliamentary Committee, Member
Mr. Kubilius graduated from the Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University in 1979. In 1988 he joined the Sajudis Movement and became Executive Secretary of the Sajudis Council. He has been a member of the Lithuanian Parliament since 1992, and in 1996 he became First Deputy Chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament. November 1999 he was appointed Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania, a position he held until November 2000. Mr. Kubilius has been a member of the Homeland Union since its inception.
Toomas Luman, President of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
In the period from 1983 until 1993, Toomas Luman acted as Managing Director for a number of Estonian companies. He has been with the EE group (a financial services company) since 1993. Toomas Luman also serves on the board of a number of professional societies. He is President of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Board in the Estonian Association of International Companies.
Andrzej Olechowski, Chairman and Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, Central Europe Trust Fund, Poland
Andrzej Olechowski graduated in 1973 with an M.A. in Economics from the Central School of Commerce in Warsaw. From 1974 until 1978, he was employed as an Economist with UNCTAD in Geneva. In 1979, he received his PhD. After four years with the Institute of Foreign Trade and Market Conditions, he was offered a position as an Economist with the World Bank in Washington. In 1987, Andrzej Olechowski moved back to Poland again and worked first as Advisor to the chairman of the National Bank of Poland, second as First Deputy Chairman. In 1992, he was made Minister of Finance. In 1993, he became Foreign Minister, a position which he held until the following year. Today, Andrzej Olechowski is Chairman of Bank Handlowy w Warswawie S.A. and the Central Europe Trust.
Baiba Rubess
2000 Managing Director of SIA Latvia Statoil Hydro
Paweł Świeboda, President of demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy
Paweł Świeboda is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of London. He served as the EU Advisor to the President of Poland in the years 1996-2000. He then headed the Office for European Integration in the Chancellery of the President. In the years 2001-2006 he served as Director of the Department of the European Union in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was responsible for EU accession negotiations and subsequently institutional reform in the Union and negotiations on the Financial Perspective. In July 2006 he became President of demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy (www.demoseuropa.eu). In addition to his role at the BDF, he is also a Member of the Lisbon Council, Member of the Advisory Board of the European Policy Centre, Co-President of BELA (Broader European Leadership Agenda) Foundation, Member of the Council of the Amicus Europae Foundation. He also serves on the Commission on Europe After 50 set up by Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London and chairs the “L’Esprit de Sel” Group of Experts which is preparing recommendation for the EU Agenda 2020 and is the author of numerous articles on issues of European integration and international relations. He has a column on foreign policy in “Gazeta Wyborcza”, Poland’s largest daily newspaper.
Per Unckel, Governor of the County Administrative Board of Stockholm
Per Unckel was born in 1948 and was elected to the Swedish Parliament in 1976. He was appointed secretary of the Moderate Party in 1976, a post he held until 1991 when he was appointed Minister for Education in the Carl Bildt government. From 1994 until 1998, Unckel was party spokesperson on labour market issues, and in 1998 he became chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution. In 1999, he was elected leader of the Moderate parliamentary party. Per Unckel was Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers and based at the Secretariat in Copenhagen until 2007. At present, Per Unckel is the County Administrative Board of Stockholm.
Igor Yurgens, Vice-President of Russian Union of Industrialist and Entrepreneurs
Igor Yurgens is also Chairman of Insurance Committee, Russian Federation Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Board Member of Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, Member of Expert Council of Insurance and Non-state Pensions of Russian Federation State Duma, Co-Chairman of Fund for Parliamentary Developments in Russia. Additionally Igor Yurgens is First Vice President, Head of the State & Government Relations Department in Renaissance Capital.
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University, Igor Yurgens has worked in the trade union movement for almost two decades, served in UNESCO for a number of years, headed the All-Russian Insurance Association until recently. Ph.D. in Economics, author of a number of articles and monographs. Igor Yurgens has received the State Order of Honour as well as a number of medals.
