Region: Europe
Andrei Kureichik
Andrei Kureichik is a Belarusian playwright, director, publicist, and civil activist. As a writer and director prior to 2020, Andrei was especially beloved for his comedies and suspense thrillers. Following the contested presidential elections and brutal aftermath in Belarus in August 2020, Andrei gained an international following as a political playwright. Forced to flee the country as a member of the Coordination Council working with perceived winner Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s transition team, Andrei leveraged his creative energy to produce the documentary play “Insulted. Belarus(sia)” about the 2020 presidential elections, subsequent protests, and violent crackdown by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus. The play has been translated into 29 languages and received 200…
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Sascha Müller-Kraenner
Sascha Müller-Kraenner is CEO of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (Environmental Action Germany), a leading environmental, nature conservation, and consumer advocacy organization. He is also a founding partner and board member of the Ecologic Institute, a non-profit applied environmental policy research institute with offices in several European and North American cities. From 2007-2014, Sascha built and led The Nature Conservancy's regional program in Europe. From 2003-2006, he served as the Heinrich Böll Foundation's Director for Europe and North America as well as head of the Foundation's program on foreign and security policy. From 1998-2002 he served as Director of the Foundation's office in Washington DC. Sascha serves on several boards of scientific and…
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Kirsten Rulf
Kirsten Rulf has been working as a senior advisor for digital, technology, and innovation policy to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and current Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2019. She is Head of Division for General Digital Policy Issues and “Nerd-in-Chief” at the Federal Chancellery of Germany in Berlin. In her strategic leadership position, Kirsten is shaping Germany’s and Europe’s role in the geopolitics of tech. What does European digital sovereignty mean in a global context? How should Germany navigate the Great Power competition between USA and China? Kirsten first started to think about these issues during her decade-long career as an award-winning journalist: as current affairs correspondent for Germany’s flagship…
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Temuri Yakobashvili
Ambassador Temuri Yakobashvili is President of TY Strategies, a boutique consulting firm advising governments, non-governmental institutions, and businesses across the U.S., Europe, and Eurasia. He also Founder and President of the New International Leadership Institute, non-for profit organization, dedicated to reforms, good governance, and anti-corruption. Temuri was previously Executive Vice President of the global strategy consultancy, PASS, LLC. Until fall of 2014, he held position of the Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US. From early February 2011 to March 2013 he served as an Ambassador of Georgia to the United States. Prior to his posting, he was Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Reintegration…
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Jan Jakub "Kuba" Wygnanski
Jan Jakub "Kuba" Wygnanski is sociologist serving as President of Board for Shipyard – Centre for Social Innovation and Research. Kuba starting his career as a Solidarity activist in Poland. He was participating in historical Round Table talks. After 1989, he became deeply involved in numerous initiatives aiming to support civil society in Poland and other countries. He has started several NGOs including the KLON/JAWOR Association and the Forum of Nongovernmental Initiatives, which plays a key role as representative of Polish Third Sector. Kuba was initiator and coordinator of a multi-year systemic project of Polish Model of Social Economy. For over 25 years Kuba has been deeply involved in the…
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Nizam Uddin
Nizam Uddin is Chief Strategy Officer of algbra, a technology-based financial ecosystem dedicated to global financial inclusion by focusing on the underserved and underbanked. Nizam was previously the Senior Head of Mosaic and Community Integration at The Prince’s Trust and Head of the Mosaic Initiative. Nizam has a strong interest and background in overcoming the societal and economic challenges that prevent disenfranchised and minority communities from fulfilling their potential. He is a 2019 US State Department International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) participant and a Trustee of: SOAS, University of London, Robert. F. Kennedy Human Rights UK, and Belong – the UK's Cohesion and Integration Network (COIN). Nizam was awarded an…
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Maxim Trudolyubov
Maxim Trudolyubov is Editor-at-Large at Vedomosti, a Russian business daily, and he is a Senior Fellow with the Kennan Institute where he writes The Russia File blog and oversees special publications. He also writes a weekly column in Russian on societal and institutional change in Russia and the former Soviet Union. He has anchored a talk show on the radio station Echo of Moscow and is regularly invited to comment for various news outlets in Russia and other countries. Previously, Maxim was Editorial Page Editor and Foreign Editor for Vedomosti, Editor and Correspondent for the newspaper Kapital, and a translator for The Moscow News, an English-language online newspaper. Maxim won…
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Rebecca Sullivan
Rebecca Sullivan is a sustainable-living advocate residing in a straw bale home off the grid on a 90-acre eco-farm in the Clare Valley, South Australia. She is a self-taught cook and has worked with some of the world’s best food producers, academics, activists, and chefs. She is a food curator, consultant, TV presenter, activist, author, regenerative farmer, and social entrepreneur. Rebecca has worked on many global sustainability projects including the Real Food Festival in London and serving as Taste Curator on Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Her current work includes writing three more books, presenting on green living, hosting workshops, running her social enterprises Warndu and the Granny Skills…
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Heather Stevens
Heather Stevens is a career civil servant, whose most recent posting was Director of Workforce Policy in the Department of Health, Northern Ireland, where she was responsible for advising government Ministers on all matters relating to the health and social care workforce including the numbers of health professionals trained, regulatory matters, and terms and conditions including pay negotiations. Prior to that she was head of the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners, the regulatory body for recruitment to the Civil Service, following a spell in the voluntary sector working as a Director in the National Youth Agency in the United Kingdom. The Agency aims to promote the voice and influence…
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Igor Shevchenko
Igor Shevchenko has played a major role in bringing the rule of law to Ukraine by founding and leading the Ukrainian Bar Association from 2002 till 2007. He is also the founder and former managing partner of Shevchenko Didkovskiy & Partners, the leading law firm in Ukraine (rebranded as Asters in 2008). Igor left his legal practice in 2008 to concentrate on politics and civil service. In 2014-2015 he served as a Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine and was a presidential candidate in 2019 elections. He currently leads Successful Ukraine political party and heads the Institute for State Efficiency, a think tank conducting research on world’s best practices of public governance for further use in Ukraine and promoting meritocracy as the most efficient way…
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