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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jens Henriksson has extensive experience in financial markets, public finances, private companies and international economic affairs, gained during his years as an advisor and policy maker in government, international agencies and policy organs, and president and CEO in private companies. Jens Henriksson is the President and CEO of Swedbank since October 2019. Swedbank is a digital bank with roots in the Swedish savings bank movement and has more than 7 million private and 600,000 corporate customers in its four home markets, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. For six years, between 2013 and 2019, Jens Henriksson was the President and CEO of Folksam, Sweden’s largest insurance company. Before joining Folksam, he was a Senior Vice President with NASDAQ OMX and the President and the CEO of the Swedish Stock Exchange, NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. In 2008 – 2010, Jens Henriksson was Executive Director at IMF in Washington, DC, and in 1994 - 2006 he worked at the Swedish Ministry of Finance.

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.

Micael Johansson was deputy CEO and Senior Executive Vice President of Saab, before he was appointed President and CEO in October 2019. Micael started at Saab in 1985 and has held several executive positions within the company, including head of business area Surveillance. He holds a degree in mathematics and computer science from Uppsala University.

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. 

Cecilia Malmström has been European Commissioner for Trade 2014-2019 and commissioner for home affairs between 2010-2014. Prior to that she served as Sweden’s minister of European affairs. She has also been a member of the European Parliament 1999-2006. Cecilia holds a PhD in political science from the University of Gothenburg, and for several years she lectured in European affairs, terrorism, migration etc. She now holds the Assar Gabrielsson visiting professorship at the school of business, Economics and Law at Gothenburg University.

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.

Peter Sandberg is Chief Executive 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.

Long before he was appointed CEO in 2010, Henrik Tjärnström was part of the Kindred Group (then Unibet Group). He joined the Board of Directors in 2003 and was part of the board until when he stepped into the role as Chief Financial Officer in 2008. Henrik holds an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Institute of Technology, Linköping University, Sweden. Before joining the Kindred Group, he was employed as Senior Financial Manager at Skanska Infrastructure Development AB from 2001 to 2008.

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.

Ed Vaizey (Lord Vaizey of Didcot) is a member of the House of Lords, appointed in 2020, and sits on the Communications and Media Committee. Ed was the Member of Parliament for Wantage between 2005 and 2019. He served as the UK Government Culture and Digital Minister from 2010-16, and is the longest-serving Minister in that role. He was appointed a privy councilor in 2016.

In his role as digital minister, Ed was responsible for the rollout of the successful rural broadband programme to more than 4 million homes, the introduction of 4G, and tax credits for film, television, animation and video games, which have helped make the creative industries the fastest-growing part of the UK economy.

In the private sector, Ed is an executive-in-residence at LionTree, the leading global M&A advisory firm specialising in TMT with offices in New York, San Francisco, London and Paris. Ed also sits on the Technology Media and Telecoms advisory board of FTI consulting. In addition, Ed is an adviser to several companies such as Edge, Common Sense Media, Digital Theatre, Salary Finance, Perlego, and NewsGuard.

João Vale de Almeida is the Head of Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom. He took office on February 1st, 2020. He is a senior European Union diplomat whose last postings as Ambassador included the United Nations (from 2015 to 2019) and the United States (2010 to 2014).
Prior to his appointment in Washington as the European Union’s Ambassador, he served as the Director General for External Relations at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body. As the most senior official under the authority of the High Representative/Vice-President , he helped formulate and execute the EU’s foreign policy and played a key role in preparing for the new European External Action Service (EEAS) introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon and the EU Sherpa for G8 and G20 summits.