Hélène Barnekow has more than 25 years of experience from the IT and Telecom industry. Prior to joining Microsoft in December 2018, Hélène worked as the CEO of the Telco company, Telia Sweden. Earlier in her career she was Head of Field & Partner Marketing at EMC in Boston, USA, where she was awarded several grants for her excellent leadership and marketing achievements. She has also been assigned several leadership roles at Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Hélène is part of the Board of Directors of GN Store Nord A/S and Kindred Group plc. In August 2019, Hélène launched her first book, Re:start, about valued-based leadership in a ever changing world.

Carl Benedikt Frey is Oxford Martin Citi Fellow at Oxford University where he directs the programme which he also founded on the Future of Work at the Oxford Martin School. 

Frey has served as an advisor and consultant to international organisations, think tanks, government and business, including the G20, the OECD, the European Commission, the United Nations, and several Fortune 500 companies. He is also an op-ed contributor to the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Scientific American, and the Wall Street Journal, where he has written on the economics of artificial intelligence, the history of technology, and the future of work.  

His academic work has featured in over 100 media outlets, including The Economist, Bloomberg, The Guardian, New York Times, Time Magazine, Le Monde, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In addition, he has frequently appeared international broadcast media such as CNN, BBC, PBS News Hour, Al Jazeera, and Sky News.

His most recent book, The Technology Trap, was selected a Financial Times Best Books of the Year in 2019.

Since June 2017 Andrew has represented the people of West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine as their Member of Parliament in Westminster. In March 2018 he became the first new Scottish MP and the first of the 2017 intake, to be promoted when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In January 2019 Andrew was promoted to Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. In August 2019 Andrew was appointed Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, his remit covers The Union and Youth within the party.

After leaving school at 16, Jamie returned to education as a mature student to gain an engineering degree at Northumbria University.  He worked as an engineer making breathing apparatus and in the electronics and IT sector, later setting up his own software development firm.  Before being elected to the Office of Mayor, North of Tyne, Jamie was a Labour and Cooperative Councillor in the Monument Ward in Newcastle City Centre.  A passionate socialist, Jamie is committed to driving forward his manifesto pledges around community wealth building, addressing the climate emergency, revitalising life in local communities, building affordable homes and delivering lifelong learning for the people North of Tyne.  Originally born on Teesside, Jamie now lives in Gosforth with his wife and sons.

Nik Gowing was the main news presenter for BBC World News (1996-2014), and he has 35 years of analytical experience in diplomacy, defence and international security. In 2018 Nik Gowing, along with Chris Langdon, released the book Thinking the Unthinkable: A new imperative for leadership in the digital age.

Darja Isaksson is Director General of Vinnova, Sweden’s national innovation agency, and serves as a member of the Swedish government’s National Digitalization Council. As the founder of two agencies, Isaksson has worked in business and product development for clients such as Sony Ericsson, Ikea and Husqvarna. She has served as adviser to the prime minister’s Innovation Council, been recognized as one of Sweden’s most powerful opinion-makers by financial magazine Veckans Affarer and was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people in digital government by the website Apolitical.

Jan-Olof Jacke is, since October 2018, the Director General of Swedish Enterprise. He holds an MBA from the Gothenburg School Of Economics. After graduation, he was a management consultant from 1995 to 1999. He has worked at AstraZeneca since 1999 as Chief Financial Officer for various units and was between 2013 and 2018 CEO of AstraZeneca Sweden.

From 1997 to 2011, Leif Johansson was Chief Executive Officer of Volvo. Prior to that, he served at Electrolux, latterly as Chief Executive Officer from 1994 to 1997. He was a Non-Executive Director of BMS from 1998 to September 2011, serving on the Board’s Audit Committee, and Compensation and Management Development Committee. Leif was Chairman of global telecommunications company, LM Ericsson, from 2011 until March 2018. He holds an MSc in engineering from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. Leif holds board positions at Autoliv, Inc and Ecolean. He has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences since 1994 (Chairman 2012 to 2017). Leif is also a member of the European Round Table of Industrialists (Chairman 2009 to 2014) and a Member of the Council of Advisors, Boao Forum for Asia.

Sean McGuire is Europe Director for the CBI. Based in the CBI’s Brussels Office, Sean is responsible for overseeing the CBI’s post-Brexit European strategy focussing on the implementation of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and ensuring that business interests and concerns are communicated to policymakers within the EU Institutions and UK Government Departments. As the EU’s third largest trading partner, Sean also leads several EU policy campaigns of strategic importance for UK business, including trade, climate change, services and digital and is responsible for bilateral relations with key EU trading partners. As part of the CBI’s UK Global Competitiveness Strategy, Sean co-ordinates the CBI’s B7 and B20 activities with sister federations from the G7 and G20 nations and is a member of BusinessEurope’s International Relations Committee. Sean has been with the CBI since 2001 during which time he held a number of positions. Prior to joining the CBI, Sean was European Affairs Adviser for the Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF) in the UK.

Fraser Nelson is the editor of The Spectator. He is also a columnist with The Daily Telegraph, a member of the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice and the Centre for Policy Studies.

Peter Sandberg is Managing Director at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce since 2018. He holds an MSc in Political Science and Economics from Lund University and has previously worked in press and communications roles at the Swedish Embassy and Chamber of Commerce in London respectively. He has worked at the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York City as Director of Program and VP, and when returning to London, joined the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association where he was part of the management team in his role as Director of Commercial Development & Membership.

Åsa Tamsons is Senior Vice President and Head of Business Area Technologies and New Businesses and member of Ericsson’s Executive Team. With focus on technology and innovation, Tamsons team is responsible to drive growth in new areas for Ericsson. They do this by identifying, developing and scaling new businesses that support Ericsson’s customers to capture the full potential of 5G, IoT and future technologies.

Tamsons team drives the Ericsson IPR and licensing, Cradlepoint – the US-based market leader in Wireless WAN Edge 4G and 5G solutions for the enterprise market, Ericsson´s global IoT platform business, Global Dedicated Networks business and Small- Medium Business Solutions (SMB Solutions), and a number of other emerging businesses in incubation stage through the innovation hub Ericsson ONE.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist and president of the Social Policy Association. She was formerly BBC social affairs editor, columnist and associate editor of the Independent, co-editor of the Washington Monthly and a reporter and feature writer for the Observer.