Fredrik Timour is the CEO of Fashion innovation center and has a broad and deep perspective on digital fashion. Fashion Innovation Center operates like a switchboard between the industry, content providers, and academia and is at the forefront of Fashion Transformation. Fredrik is also the founder of Neue, a platform for digital fashion development including hardware, software, and cloud services, for fashion brands and end-user applications. He has been running courses in fashion tech at the Fashion Institute of Technology – NYC, London College of Fashion – London, IFA – Paris, and Beckmans – Stockholm. Furthermore, he has worked directly with clients like Fusalp, POC, IKEA, BACK, Snickers Workwear, SAS, and IBM developing new business models and concepts for digital fashion.

Alexandr Hobza is Chief Economist at the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation of the European Commission. He leads a team of economists who enhance the evidence base in support of science, technology and innovation policies of the European Commission. Previously, he headed teams working on assessments of structural reforms and was an advisor to the Director-General of DG ECFIN of the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he also worked as a Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He holds a PhD degree from the University of Economics in Prague, D.E.A. degree in quantitative economics from Université Libre de Bruxelles and M.A. degree in Economics of European Integration from an international programme delivered by University of Antwerp, Staffordshire University and University of Economics in Prague.

Anders Almgren (Social Democrat) is since 2022 the mayor of the City of Lund. He also served as mayor the term 2014 to 2018.

Anders has a long experience working for sustainable development and entrepreneurship within the innovation ecosystem in Sweden and abroad. Anders is also the chairman for ITS Sweden. Before joining Ideon Science Park, he held the position as Strategic Business Manager for Region Skåne's innovation company Innovation Skåne, where he developed the area of ​​sustainable mobility and worked with strategy issues. He is also the former Business Area Manager Incubation at Almi Företagspartner and Senior Vinnova Wallenberg Fellow at Nordic Innovation House in Palo Alto.

Director for the environmental administration in the City of Gothenburg since 2014. Before that Secretary General for the Swedish research council Formas and Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lund University and Linköping University. Got her PhD in analytical and environmental chemistry at Linköping University in 1993, and became Reader at the same university in 1996. She has according long experience working for sustainable development in different positions in a municipality, on national level and in academia.

At Breakthrough Energy – an organisation founded by Bill Gates in 2015 – Ann Mettler is working with European partners to accelerate clean tech innovation in the pursuit of climate neutrality and net-zero emissions. Previously, she served as Director-General at the European Commission where she ran the internal strategy department, reporting directly to the President. An entrepreneur at heart, Ann set up her own think tank which she ran for more than a decade. Her career started at the World Economic Forum where she led the Europe department.

Björn Ekelund is responsible for electronics and robotics research in the Ericsson Group and leads a global organization spanning five time zones. Having numerous engagements besides Ericsson, he is also the chairman of Mobile Heights, Sweden’s largest cluster organization in Tech, and an advisor to both government and industry associations. He is a fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and holds M.Sc. and Lic.Eng. degrees from Lund University.

Carl Johan is the CEO for Fagerström Industrikonsult AB, with a demonstrated history of working in the mechanical or industrial engineering industry. He is skilled in Solid Edge, Mechanical Product Design, Sales, Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and Engineering. A strong program and project management professional with a Master of Science (MSc) focused in Mechanical Engineering from Chalmers Tekniska Högskola and the Royal Institute of Technology. Carl Johan is truly passionate about technology, entrepreneurship, his staff and showing that small businesses can make a difference in big projects even if there isn't a natural place for them.

Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson is a journalist, moderator and program host focusing on sustainability. She is chair of the independent think tank Global Utmaning (Global Challenge), program host for We Don´t Have Time and Content Director and moderator for A Sustainable Tomorrow.

Catarina has worked as a journalist since 1991, based in New York, Stockholm, Singapore and Malmö, Sweden. Catarina has published 12 books in the field of sustainability and she lectures in Sweden as well as internationally.
She is spokesperson for the climate NGO “Våra barns klimat” and co- founder of the international NGO “Our Kids ´Climate” with groups in 23 countries.

Her academic background is in political science, cultural science and journalism from Lund University (1983-1986) and Skurup School of journalism (1986-1987). She has additional education as a TV anchor from Channel 7 in New York and as a sustainability expert from the organization The Natural Step.

Before moving to her current position as Program Director at Big Science Sweden, Catarina Sahlberg was Senior Research Advisor in the Innovation Partnership at Uppsala University. She also held a role as Senior Research Officer at the Swedish Research Council. Catarina has a PhD in Physics from the University of Otago, New Zealand. International Big Science research facilities, located all over the world, are conducting groundbreaking research, and stimulating innovation and technical development. Big Science Sweden serves as a bridge between Swedish industry, academia, and these large-scale research facilities. The focus for Catarina and her team is to strengthen Sweden as an innovative and leading Big Science nation, by helping to establish Swedish innovation on a global market.

Christian is the Chief Executive Officer at Science Village Scandinavia AB (SVS) since 2020. SVS’s mission is to develop a knowledge ecosystem that takes advantage of the research results from the big science infrastructures ESS and MAX IV in Lund, Sweden. Prior to this, he served for many years as Executive Vice President for the large Swedish consultancy group Tyréns and in different roles at the large construction and development company NCC.

Among his responsibilities at Tyréns was leading consultancy operation in infrastructure and urban development as well as being responsible for operations in research and innovation. Between 2013 and 2019 he was chairing the faculty board of Technology and Society at Malmo University, Sweden.

He also holds positions of trust, among others as board director the leading intellectual property firm AWA and the global digital marketplace for the construction industry BIMobject.

Mr. Lindfors holds a PhD in Industrial Economics and Organisation from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and a MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland, USA. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering at Stanford University.

Dr. Christofer Laurell is the Senior Vice President of Research and Public Affairs at Einride, a Swedish technology company that develops and provides freight mobility solutions based on electric and autonomous vehicles, leading the transition to sustainable transport. Christofer holds a PhD from Stockholm University and has published extensively on the interplay between technological innovation and institutional change in leading academic journals within his field. Prior to joining Einride, he was based at KTH Royal Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor and at Stockholm School of Economics where he holds a docentship.

Clara Weihua Shao is CEO and co-founder at Nordic Stone Studio, a MINC incubator company specializes in developing long life span mobile games with fine art. In her role, Clara is responsible for all fundraising efforts and has recently received investment from Fast Track Capital.

Prior to her role at Nordic Stone Studio, Clara worked as investor relations at Nordic Game Ventures involved bridging the gap between investors and game developers in the Nordic region, exclusively investing in early-stage game development and ecosystem SMEs.  As an integral part of her work, Clara helps organize The Games Capital Summit, connecting entrepreneurs in game industry with investors across the US, Europe, and Asia.

Ebba Lund is Chief Executive Officer of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP), and a member of its Executive Board. Her leadership role at IASP focuses on international relations, business opportunities for science and technology parks and their companies, and support to a global membership of science/technology parks and areas of innovation in more than 75 countries. Ebba has implemented and developed many knowledge-based services for science and technology parks around the world in her work at IASP. She has led the organisation of 20 IASP World Conferences, and has 20 years’ experience in the industry of innovation ecosystems. Ebba Lund holds an MA in Media Studies from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and an Executive MBA from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain.

Associate Professor Fredrik Gröndahl is the manager on the Blue Food Center at KTH financed by the Swedish Research Council Formas and the Region of Västra Götaland with 8 academic partners and around 70 external partners engaged in the production of food both from the Sea and freshwater systems. Fredrik Gröndahl is a marine biologist and industrial ecologist  and has long experience of the cultivation of Seaweeds and the sustainable use of marine biomass. He is the co-author of Swedens most used book about sustainable development and is also one of the co-founders of Nordic Seafarm that is developing the cultivation of seaweeds in Sweden.

Gabriella has a solid background in the IT- and computer game industries, with experience and perspectives from an industrial and entrepreneurial standpoint. She adds her skills as a strategic business development manager to the RISE GameNode team, an arena for aiding in the development of the Swedish games industry and the empowerment of knowledge and technology transfer to other industries. She also heads up the XR Lab RISE is constructing in Skellefteå and oversees the PowerUP network of more than 90 individuals from industry, universities, educators, municipalities, regions and government agencies, all working together to improve the ecosystem for sustainable long-term growth and to maximize the impact of the computer games industry.

At present Ingrid is the Inquiry Chair of two Swedish inquiries; the Inquiry on enhanced food security and the Inquiry on research and innovation funding. For the last nine years, between 2013 and 2022, she has been the Director-General for Formas – a Swedish research council for sustainable development. Ingrid has previous worked with Science Relations and Collaborations at AstraZeneca and been State Secretary at the Ministry for Agriculture. Ingrid is on the board of the National Board of Health and Welfare and the Swedish Forest Agency. She has previously been on the Board of the Swedish Agricultural University and Stockholm Environment Institute and chaired the Swedish Agenda 2030-delegation. In 2021 she left as Vice-President of Science Europé after six years in this position.

In his role as Business Enabler at Vattenfall Ivan Bergman delivers close business support to the business unit's unique digitization process by introducing new technology and helping to stay relevant in a market under severe change. 

He has a solid 20 years background as an entrepreneur within the utility and telecom industry as well as a great interest in innovation, disruptive technologies and knowledge management. 

Jakob Trollbäck is the main architect behind the language and visual identity of the UN's 17 Global Goals, which were launched in 2015. He is also one of the initiators of the Inner Development Goals, a framework of the individual skills and qualities needed to accelerate the work toward Agenda 2030. In 2017, Jakob founded The New Division, which is a consulting agency that supports companies and organizations to strengthen and activate their sustainability work.

Jan has a long experience as police officer and for the last 14 years he is focused on fraud and cybercrime. He has been a driving force in the foundation of the National Fraud Center (NBC) where he worked with preventative measures, operation development and private-public partnerships, at the National IT Crime Center (Noa) and the Swedish Cyber Crime Center (SC3). Jan is lecturer and speaker, often requested in Sweden as well as internationally. He works with the international police cooperations Europol and Interpol on a regular basis and is member of the ECCFI board (European Cyber Crime and Fraud Investigators), the Law Enforcement committee and MRC (Merchant Risk Council). In 2022 he was awarded the Security profile of the year (Aktuell Säkerhet).

Jenni Nordborg, PhD, is since January 2023 Director for International Affairs at Lif – the research-based pharmaceutical companies. Prior to this position, Dr. Nordborg has for the past 5 years held the position as National Life Sciences Coordinator appointed by the Swedish Government. It this role she was also Director of the Office for Life Sciences at the Government Offices of Sweden, responsible for the Swedish National Life Sciences Strategy. Previously Dr. Nordborg was Director and Head of the Health Division at Vinnova, the Swedish Governmental Innovation Agency. Dr. Nordborg is active in strategic innovation policy development and implementation within health and life science on national and international level. Her network includes international innovation policy, entrepreneurship and the health and life science ecosystem. Her research background is from Chalmers University of Technology. She has experience from senior management positions in both the private and public sector, an entrepreneurial background from commercialization of research, and worked with international collaborations and marketing and sales management. She also has experience in board level positions both in private companies and governmental organizations.

Jennie Rosén, CEO of Swedish Fashion Council. Since her appointment Rosén has driven Swedish Fashion Councils national and international activities. A visionary in her field, she is dedicated to take fashion forward by encouraging collaborations within and across disciplines. Driven by design, culture and technology her focus is set on innovation to reform the fashion system on a regional and global level. Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, Rosén successfully mastered to align creative visions and business. She graduated in fashion design and economy and gained experience along the fashion supply chain. Between 2011- 2017 she has been the CEO and Co-owner of the progressive Swedish fashion brand Ann-Sofie Back/BACK. The tech fashion collaboration with Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and NEUE has led to the establishment of a unique Fashion Tech Accelerator Program that was launched in Spring 2019 in Sweden. Sweden Fashion Councils agenda follows an agenda shaping the future of Swedish fashion by positioning brands, innovation and design conceptually in an international market.

Swedish delegate and International Expert ISO/TC 279 Innovation Management. The past 25 years Johan has led or governed innovation initiatives, business development and managed change in organisations during extreme growth and under rapid transformation. 

He has created, simplified and digitized systems for systematic management of innovation, sustainability, environment, quality, OHS and information security for multinational corporations as well as new business and startups. 

Johan will share insights and advice about the uneven competitive advantages that using standards gives you.

Kalle Magnusson spent more than 15 years as an entrepreneur in the creative industries, focusing on innovation, technology, art, and creativity. Since the early 2000s, he has co-founded multiple initiatives and companies across various sectors.

In 2020, he started a new role as an innovation advisor at Almi, Sweden's most active business developer for small and medium-sized companies, owned by the Swedish state. In this role, he provides advice and coaching on strategy, financing, innovation, sustainability, and more. From early ideas to established businesses.

At Almi, Kalle aims to expand the innovation system to encompass a wider range of industries, disciplines, and entrepreneurs, with a specific focus on the creative industries and gaming. He believes that there is still unexplored potential for growth and development in these fields, which can be accelerated through innovation, ultimately leading to new products and services, also valuable to other, more traditional industries. His vision is an ecosystem that is not limited to a select few, but open and inclusive to all kinds of innovative and creative organizations and entrepreneurs.

Karin Ebbinghaus, LLM, MBA, is the CEO of deeptech e-mobility company Elonroad. Karin has extensive experience from working as lawyer (M&A) and investor but fell for Elonroad and their inspiring approach to tackle the climate challenge with new thinking and belief in technology. Elonroad enables acceleration into electrification of the transport sector by providing a novel kind of charging infrastructure. Karin is an internationally experienced results-oriented leader with substantial management skills.

Kjell-Håkan Närfelt has been working with technology driven business development and R&D for more than 20 years in different management positions. He has served as a board member and advisor to several R&D based start-ups during his time as an investment director in a corporate venture and as partner in a private seed investment company. He has also served as an international advisor, expert and board member in different international governmental initiatives in EU, Norway and Thailand. Kjell-Håkan is currently involved in the strategic development of a new area at Vinnova – Ecosystems for innovative companies and acting as chair for EU’s Policy Support Facility to Croatia on applied research, science-business linkages and commercialisation of research. He is also chairperson for UNECE’s Team of Specialists on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies and has a research background in computer science which resulted in an academic spin-off that encouraged him to leave academia and to exploit the research results in a commercial context.

Klas Hjort is an associate Professor at the department of Packaging Logistics at Lund University in Sweden. He holds an PhD where he focused on fashion consumer returns and the Returns Management process. At present Klas is engaged in both ASTER (Alliance for Sustainable E-commerce and Centre for Retail Research at Lund University where he continues to focus on the returns process and studies how digitalization can help to both transform the handling of returns as well as how it can support the transition into circular economy.

Kristina Eneroth is Pro Vice Chancellor External Engagement at Lund University. Kristina oversees the University’s external relation activities as well as the University’s international affairs. She is chair of the University’s Advisory Board on Collaboration, and the International Council. In addition she is chair of LU Holding company.

Current role since April 2018 as Material Development Expert at Sandvik Mining and Rock Processing, SRP. Works on development of new alloys/materials for our crushing wear parts. Holds a double PhD degree in Material Science, 2016 from both Luleå University of Technology (LTU) and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Got Vattenfall’s prize for best PhD thesis 2016 at Luleå University of Technology.

Lena Miranda is the CEO of Linköping Science Park since 2014. She is also the vice chairman of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation. Previous, Lena have been the chairman of the Swedish Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation for five years as well as a member of the Swedish Innovation Council led by the Prime minister to Sweden. Before joining Linköping Science Park, Lena Miranda have a background in entrepreneurship, running her own company for a ten year period. At the moment she is very engaged in topics covering emerging innovation eco-systems, missions and system innovation.

The purpose of EIT Climate KIC is to tackle climate change through innovation. They are Europe's largest public-private partnership with this purpose – a growing pan-European community of diverse organisations united by a commitment to direct the power of creativity and human ingenuity at the climate change challenge. Lisa Lang has gained recognition as one of Forbes Europe's Top 50 Women in Tech, and has been listed as one of the 50 most important women for innovation & startups in the EU.

Louise has over 20 years of experience in sustainable business development and communication. She has worked for several of the largest companies in Sweden, including IKEA, Coop, and most recently Ramboll Management Consulting, where she acted as the Head of Strategic Sustainability Consulting. Louise believes in the power of sustainable business development. When she is not working, she is in the forest, ocean, or on the dance floor with family and friends.

Dr Björsne graduated at the University of Lund in 1989 and took his post graduate studies at Stockholm University where he did his PhD on Medicinal Chemistry targeting the HIV protease enzyme. Dr Björsne joined Astra Hassle in 1995 and worked in the preclinical Cardiometabolic unit. From his period in this field Dr. Björsne is the inventor of a series of compounds which have advanced to clinical trials. After holding a series of managerial positions within the Cardiovascular Discovery Research Management, Dr Björsne moved to the Strategic Planning & Business Development organisation in 2006 where he has been leading the Cardiovascular Business Development team involved in the search, evaluation and transaction of M&As and licensing deals. Since 2014 Dr Björsne is leading AZ BioVentureHub – a novel approach to open innovation which allows smaller Biotechs and academic groups to work in close proximity to the skills and capabilities that resides within big pharma.

Since the beginning of 2021, Alfa Laval has been running a collaborative project together with MAX IV and Lund University with the aum of developing a platform for industry regarding large-scaled research facilities. Magnus oversees the initiative on Alfa Laval’s behalf with the technology and manufacturing industry as a focus. He holds a PhD in Solid Mechanics at Lund University and has years of experience in leading and running R&D activities in various global technology and industrial companies. 

Malin works with business and organizational development at the Swedish Institute for Standards. She sees standards as essential tools organizations can use to reach their innovation and sustainability goals efficiently and successfully.

Marie Wall has a broad range of experience from different parts of the private sector including within computer science research, start-ups, venture capital. She has also worked at large corporations within tech, as well as having policy experience from heading the national funding of incubators and young start-ups at the innovation agency (Vinnova). Some of Marie’s areas of responsibilities within the Swedish government office include start-ups, scale-ups, deep tech and skill supply.

Marianne works at Innovation Skåne as Director of HealthTech Nordic. Together with Nordic partners, she founded HealthTech Nordic and the predecessor Nordic Connected Health Star Track. Prior to that she co-founded Mobile Heights Business Center, accelerating tech startups. Before Innovation Skåne, Marianne worked nine years as management consultant in various industries, after 15 years in international business development at Tetra Pak and Alfa Laval.She is often consulted by national innovation agencies for her expertise and as a juror – currently in e-health and healthtech awards. She was also a juror in the popular Swedish reality show Uppfinnarna (The Inventors) on TV4.She has grown with her expertise in start-ups, growth, innovation, mobile, tech, connected health, healthtech, and industry management experience from biotech, pharma, energy, food processing and packaging, and more. At Innovation Skåne, Marianne has also been involved in other innovation projects, such as Materials Business Center and Lighting Metropolis. Her main motivation is to accelerate disruptive innovation in health care, to radically improve health, care quality and cost–efficiency.

Mats Persson has served as the Minister of Education (Liberal) in Sweden since 2022. He holds a PhD in economics from Lund University and has previously conducted research and taught at the School of Economics and Management, Lund University. Mats advocates for knowledge and education as the foundation for social development and prosperity, asserting that Sweden must become a leading knowledge nation through world-class research and higher education.

Michael has a broad range of experience from various parts of the Brussels environment. He has worked for Region Skånes Brussels office since 2012 monitoring a number of EU policies and funding opportunities within research and innovation; cohesion policy and the green deal to mention a few. He has also worked for the European Commission at DG Employment and Social Affairs and prior moving to Brussels in 1999 he worked at the Ministry of Labour in Sweden.

Muchaneta ten Napel is the founder and CEO of Shape Innovate. Shape Innovate is an industry catalyst that probes the economic impact of the fashion industry through evidence-based research and the publishing of white papers and forecasts that focus on the economic effects of fast and sustainable fashion. Besides writing for her news site platform FashNerd.com, Muchaneta has contributed to Vogue Business and is a senior contributor at The Interline. Additionally, Muchaneta is an Associate Lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL and also a fashion innovation consultant. She has worked with companies like LVMH Atelier and, more recently, with the UN UNFCC and Climate KIC during COP27.

Dr. Olga Kordas has more than 20-year experience of combining research, teaching and strategic innovation management at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. She is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, leading the research group “Urban Analytics and Transition” at KTH. Her research aims at understanding and enabling the transition toward sustainable urban systems using a fusion of complex systems science and innovation studies. Since 2017, she is the Director of Viable Cities - the Swedish National Strategic Innovation Program for Smart and Sustainable Cities. Olga is leading Viable Cities Transition Lab aiming at development and implementation of Viable Cities theory of change and methods for transformative change towards the mission “Climate Neutral Cities 2030 with a good life for all within planetary boundaries”.

Olof Karis is the acting Director of MAX IV and has been so since March 2022. Olof, called Charlie, has been a professor of experimental physics at Uppsala University since 2011. Since 2015, he was the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Uppsala. In his research, Olof Karis uses X-rays and neutrons to study materials.

Peter Strömbäck is the Director General for the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, PRV since March of 2018. A M Sc graduate from the Royal Institute of Technology KTH in Stockholm with long working experience in the Swedish innovation system. Previously Director General for Swedac, Sweden's national accreditation body, Commissioner for the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation, and CEO for Innovationsbron, now part of Almi Företagspartner AB, which strived to make Sweden leading in commercialization of research and innovation. Active in various controlling and steering bodies for WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization, EPO European Patent Office, and EUIPO EU Intellectual Property Office.

Since the election 2022, Lund municipality has been governed by the Social Democrats and the Moderates. Rasmus Törnblom is the Moderates' municipal councilor and vice chairman of Lund's municipal board. He is a Doctoral Student at Lund University. 

Since 30 years Raul has innovated solutions for how to credibly and comparably measure sustainability performances. He started with designing an innovative structure for environmental life cycle assessment data for Swedish multinational companies like ABB, Ericsson, SAAB, Stora Enso, Vattenfall and Volvo cars. Based on this he led the establishment of the world’s first national life cycle assessment database. Since then Raul has worked across a wide multinational range of sectors, technologies and applications to verifiably measure, share and standardize environmental, sustainability and circularity performance of organizations, products and services. Raul will share insights in how the right choice of standards-based sustainability performance indicators are tools to focus an organization’s innovation potential to reach its competitive advantage.

Sarah Lidé is the Deputy CEO at Medicon Village Innovation, with Medicon Village being a vibrant and thriving science park with more than 180 life science companies and organisations located in the city of Lund in southern Sweden. Sarah has a wealth of experience in leading and facilitating strategic processes, understanding macro and industry trends and their implications for business, and driving multi-stakeholder engagement. She has previously held roles as a management consultant within the public sector, healthcare and life science for about a decade, and subsequently as a senior strategy and project manager with the life science cluster organisation Medicon Valley Alliance, where, among other things, she led the Interreg-financed Microbiome Signature Project together with colleagues from Invest in Skåne and Copenhagen Capacity with the aim of strengthening and positioning the greater Copenhagen region as a leading microbiome hub.

With an MSc in Physics and a PhD in Biochemistry, Sindra Petersson Årsköld has a broad interest in the natural sciences. She pursued most of her academic career at Lund University, and also spent a few years at the Australian National University. Eleven years ago she joined ESS, then in the design phase, and has seen this science mega project grow from a green field to today’s facility. She has co-founded two companies: one in the lab tech sector and one catering to the retro culture and dance community, and she serves on the board of the LINXS Advanced Institute of Neutron and X-ray Science.

Stina Lantz is the Interim CEO at Sweden Incubators & Science Parks (SISP) and Program Manager at Ignite Sweden, an initiative that aims to foster commercial collaboration between startups, corporates and the public sector. An entrepreneur at heart, Stina has a profound background in business development and marketing in small and middle-sized B2B tech companies. Stina was also a member of the Swedish Government's collaboration program for the industry’s digital transformation.

Susanne Ekstedt works as an innovation manager within the Blue Bioeconomy team at Innovatum Science Park. She has a long track record of working in the food industry as well as in applied research. All through her career she has been engaging in a diversity of development projects and processes within academy and industry focusing heavily on innovation and is well acquainted with the entire innovation system. An overarching aim in her work is to catalyze development that brings innovation to the market and can bring benefits to society. Always with a holistic view, she is preparing the pathway for the next progressive step.

Professor Sylvia Schwaag Serger has spent more than twenty years designing and studying research, innovation and higher education policy, with a particular focus on Europe and China. She chairs the scientific council of Formas (the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) and the Austrian Council for Research and Technology Development and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien). She is a member of the board of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and the International Advisory Board of the Norwegian Research Council. She has previously been a member of the board of the University of Uppsala, the Swedish Government Expert Commission on Research (Forskningsberedning), the Swedish Innovation Council chaired by the Prime Minister (2018-2021), and chaired the board of the Swedish Foundation for Internationalization of Higher Education and Research (STINT) (2016-2022). 

Sylvia was Vice Chancellor at the University of Lund 2018-2020 and previously worked at Vinnova in the management team. She has chaired several expert groups the European Commission, and worked as expert for the OECD and the World Bank.

Teresa Jonek, MSc, has profound experience in policy development with a focus on research, technology and innovation. She is currently active at the employer organization Teknikföretagen, and previously at the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, Almega and Invest Stockholm. Ways to increase fruitful collaboration and technology transfer between large corporates, small companies and startups for a more competitive industry towards sustainability engages her strongly.

The big difference between Tine Thygesen and most speakers is that she is not a consultant or a trend forecaster, she is an actual business person who starts companies and makes decisions based on the trends she predicts. Tine Thygesen is on the board of some of Denmark's most important established companies where she is involved in difficult and important change processes driven by the climate crises and changing commercial environment. She has started 4 companies as an entrepreneur based on the same and works in three venture companies trying to select the most likely future winners, incl. as chairperson for the national program investing 100 mio kr of public money into new startups. 
 
Aside from being in the deep end herself, she is an entertaining and compelling speaker, especially in English after having lived in English-speaking countries for 8 years. She openly shares her opinions and business predictions, also when they are radical, incl. on national TV where she is a regular business commentator on TV2 News. 
 
Having worked on the forefront of technology for a decade, Tine Thygesen has dived into planetary processes and green transition in recent years in order to understand the changing landscape of business, planet and humans and understand how we must change to thrive in the future. 

Sara Övreby is Head of Public Policy at Google in Sweden. She has a strong commitment to society and works to reduce the gap between technology and politics. Since 2020, she has chaired the International Chamber of Commerce's (ICC) Committee on Digital Economy. Sara has a background as a political adviser in the European Parliament and as press secretary in the Government Offices. Before joining Google, Sara worked as Global Public Affairs Manager at Scania.

Maja Brännvall leads Brand Marketing at Google in Sweden. She is engaged in social politics and works for a safer internet which, by being open and transparent, can contribute to more sustainable societies. Before joining Google, Maja worked as a political advisor to the Prime Minister and the EU Minister. Previously, she has worked as a political advisor to the Minister for Rural Affairs and a political advisor in the European Parliament.