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.

Tech entrepreneur, political advisor and investor Aurore Belfrage spends her time in the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and international affairs. She’s an Industrial Advisor to Europe’s leading PE house EQT, she’s a syndicated columnist with leading Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and a contributor to Politico, she writes, vlogs and hosts a podcast on pressing issues like the environment, geopolitics, ethics, governance and labor/future of work. Born in London, raised partly there as well as in Saudi and Sweden, with previous lives in venture capital with EQT Ventures, scrap dealing at Stena Metall, speechwriting and attempts at stand up comedy.

Oscar joined Trustly in 2013 as CFO and was appointed CEO in 2016. He started his career at Goldman Sachs where he spent close to five years in the Investment Banking Division and Financing Group based in London and Moscow. From 2007 to 2012, he was a Portfolio Manager at Alpcot Capital Management where he was part of the team that developed and launched Europe’s first actively managed equity ETF.

Anna Brodowsky is the Vice President of Public Affairs at Essity. Anna has over 20 years’ experience in the health care (medical device, pharma) and FMCG industry, having held different positions in public affairs, legal, sustainability and regulatory affairs in different companies such as Novartis, AstraZeneca, Abbott/Abbvie, SCA/Essity. Anna has during these years built strong knowledge about the business models of the FMCG- and health care industry and how these are impacted by public policy systems, initiatives and different stakeholders at national, regional, global level. Also, how business can contribute with innovation, solutions and proper policy-making on issues ranging from patient and customer access, sustainability etc as well as driving change in partnership with different stakeholders.

Sanna is an active early stage investor, advisor and board professional with a long background in private equity investing and she was appointed Sweden’s most influential business woman by VA in 2012. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Norrsken’s investment operations (Impact Tech focus), where she today is senior advisor. Sanna is also an Industrial advisor, Board member and an early investor in Northvolt, (one of Sweden’s latest unicorns) accelerating the move to a climate neutral transport sector through the manufacturing of the greenest batteries in the world. She is also chairman and co-owner of Babyshop Group, Röhnisch Sportswear and Ljung & Sjöberg, as well as a Board member of listed companies Kinnevik and Indutrade.

Daniel Franklin is Executive and Diplomatic Editor of The Economist. Since 2003 he has also been Editor of The Economist's annual publication, The World in..., which focuses on the year ahead. His book on long-term trends, Megachange: The World in 2050, was published in 2012; Megatech: Technology in 2050 followed in 2017. Mr Franklin joined The Economist in 1983 to write about Eastern Europe. He has been Europe Editor, Britain Editor, Washington Bureau Chief, Editorial Director of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Editor-in-Chief of Economist.com and the newspaper’s Business Affairs Editor. He chairs The Economist Educational Foundation.

Sir Roger Gifford is the Chair of the Green Finance Institute and a Senior Banker at SEB in London. He read Chemistry at Oxford University and began his career in the financial sector at S.G. Warburg & Co, joining SEB in 1982. Prior to his appointment as UK Country Head (2000 – 2016) Roger headed the bank's operations in Japan for six years. He has worked in and around the primary debt and equity capital markets most of his career. Roger is Vice Chair and past Chair of the Association of Foreign Banks (AFB) in London and Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE). He was Chair of the London Green Finance Initiative launched in 2016 to further the contribution of the financial sector to the G20 climate agenda and chaired the UK Government’s Green Finance Taskforce in 2018. Roger is also Chair of the Green Finance Institute, launched in 2019, which has the economics, risk and commercial opportunity of meeting the challenge of climate change as its main focus.

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.

An experienced corporate affairs specialist, Josh joined the CBI in 2016 and leads the CBI’s overall policy development, media and campaigning  work. Josh’s focus is aimed at helping business to tackle inequality and raise living standards. Josh joined from Tesco, where he was Group Director for Corporate Responsibility. This role focused on leading on the integration of social and reputational issues into the international retailer's business strategy and developing a new approach to campaigning with customers, the Government, stakeholders and the media on issues including health, employability and sustainability. Josh has also held Exec-level roles at EdComs Ltd creating behaviour change strategies and campaigns for businesses, government departments and the voluntary sector, and an educational charity, Education Extra, campaigning with schools and working with the Government on educational issues.

 

Viveka has a long background in finance and banking and is the Head of Corporate Communication & Sustainability at Investor AB, the largest industrial holding company in Northern Europe. She joined Investor in 2018 and has been instrumental in gearing up Investor’s sustainability work.  In addition, Viveka chair’s Misum, a multi-disciplinary research center for sustainable markets at Stockholm School of Economics.  Prior to Investor, Viveka worked for close to 30 years at the bank SEB, where she the last 10 years was the Head of Corporate Communication & Marketing and a member of the Group Executive Committee. She also chaired the bank’s Group Sustainability Committee.

Lisa is the co-founder of the design firm Doberman. Under her leadership, Doberman has been appointed Sweden’s best firm in the industry, Sweden’s best workplace, and one of Sweden’s most innovative companies. Known for unorthodox innovation methodologies and unique perspectives on both employee empowerment and customer experience, Lisa has become one of Sweden’s strongest voices for the power of innovative business and leadership to impact society. 

Dr Malmgren served President George W. Bush in the White House as Special Assistant to the President and on The National Economic Council. She Co-Founded and exited H Robotics, a British firm that makes aerial drones and autonomous marine and terrain vehicles for industrial use. The firm won the CogX Award for Autonomy in 2020 and was shortlisted in the 2020 National Technology Awards. She serves as the Chairman of the Drone/UAV Subcommittee on manufacturing standards at The British Standards Institute. Before joining the White House, she ran the Bankers Trust Asset Management business in Asia and was then appointed as the Chief Currency Strategist there. She was then named the Deputy Head of Global Strategy at UBS.

Gabriel Mellqvist is a Swedish journalist working for Dagens industri. During his twelve year long career at the financial newspaper, he has for instance covered American business and politics as a New York correspondent, as well as worked as a UK Correspondent in London. He has previously anchored the TV-show Börslunch on Stockholm-based broadcaster EFN, Ekonomi- och Finansnyheterna. He has also worked for Reuters and has also co-authored the book United Stockholms of America.

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.

Frances has been an active trade unionist and campaigner all her working life. She has been employed in a range of jobs from shop work to the voluntary sector. Before the TUC, Frances worked for the Transport and General Workers Union where she worked on successful campaigns to stop the abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board and for the introduction of a national minimum wage, equal pay for women, and on a range of industrial wage claims.

Jan joined Deutsche Bank in 1988 and has held several positions within M&A, Structured Finance and Corporate Finance. He holds a BA from Pomona College, an MBA from Wharton, an MA from University of Pennsylvania, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Studies from the London School of Economics.

Mats Persson is a Partner at EY (Ernst & Young), currently sitting in its transactions and strategy business, having previously been the head of its International Trade, Economic and Policy Unit. He has been an advisor in both No 10 and No 11 Downing Street, having been the Chief of Staff to former Chancellor Sajid Javid and Special Advisor to former Prime Minister David Cameron 2015-16. He was the Director of the think-tank Open Europe 2010-15, a co-founder of Open Europe Berlin gGmbH and has also worked for a political consulting firm in Washington DC. A regular media commentator, he has written extensively on trade, EU and economic policy amongst other topics.

Humam Sakhnini has served as President of King since January 2019, after three years as Chief Financial Officer / Chief Strategy Officer. Humam was previously at Activision Blizzard for six years, where he held the position of Chief Strategy and Talent Officer.

Håkan Samuelsson is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Volvo Cars. Mr Samuelsson was appointed in October 2012 and is overseeing the transformation of the company into a global car maker and leader in safety, autonomous driving and connectivity. Following an MSc in mechanical engineering, Håkan Samuelsson started his career in 1977 at the Swedish truck manufacturer Scania, holding several leading technical positions. In 1996 he joined the executive team, responsible for development and production. In 2000, he brought his vast experience to Germany’s MAN, becoming CEO in 2005 and implementing a broad restructuring of the group.

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.

James Sproule was appointed as Chief Economist of Handelsbanken in May 2020. For much of 2019 he was a Senior Business Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson prior to which he worked with the think tanks UnHerd and the Legatum Institute; between 2014-2017 he was the Chief Economist and Director of Policy at the Institute of Directors. Before the IoD he was head of UK Research with Accenture. He started his financial career as a merchant bank economist working with Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort, and eventually helped to found the boutique bank Augusta and Company.

Rikard is currently CEO of GoodTrust and Senior Advisor for Autonomous Electric Transport company Einride. Former President of Viveport and SVP of Virtual Reality at HTC, built Viveport which is the world’s first and only “Netflix of VR” subscription service. Before joining HTC, Rikard successfully built up several international businesses in Video on Demand and eSports, as the CEO for MTGx. At Google, he was Global Marketing Director of Ads, Mobile and Social Advertising and prior to this ran marketing for all Google’s products in Europe. Rikard is the founder of Europe's largest Women in Tech event. He is a future Astronaut with Virgin Galactic.

Madeleine previously held senior research positions at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She also served as director of the IRI/PAHO-WHO Collaborating Centre on Early Warning Systems for Malaria and Other Climate-Sensitive Diseases. Madeleine originally trained as a field entomologist. She spent much of her early career doing operational research to support large-scale health interventions, mainly in Africa. She was educated at the University of Sheffield (BSc), Imperial College London (MSc) and the University of Liverpool (PhD). 

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.