Mr. Espen Barth Eide was appointed United Nations Special Adviser on Cyprus by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2014. He continued in this capacity under current Secretary-General António Guterres until August 2017, when he stepped down from his UN role in order to engage in the election campaign in Norway.

Between 2014 and 2016, Mr. Eide was Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

Mr. Eide was a member of the Norwegian government for 10 years. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (2012-2013), Minister of Defence (2011-2012), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000-2001 and 2010-2011) and Deputy Minister of Defence (2005-2010). In these positions, Mr. Eide was engaged in a range of Norwegian-supported peace and reconciliation efforts globally.

Silvija Seres is an investor and developer of technologies and companies. Her background is from research and education within software, where she did a PhD in algorithm optimization at Oxford University, programming at Alta Vista, and leadership at Fast Search and Transfer and Microsoft. Silvia has served on more than 30 major boards in private and public sector, and her current directorships include the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and the Oslo Stock Exchange. She has recently developed the most popular technology podcast in Norway, and is passionate about lifelong learning in practice, now.

The fourth industrial revolution and the future of work

The fourth industrial revolution changes how we work and who we are. The exponential development in digital infrastructure affects all other technologies in the same exponential manner, so that sensors, robotics, virtual reality, transportation and energy technologies and biology, medicine, materials science and blockchain all merge into a dizzying cocktail of solutions for the future. They do not only provide new efficiencies. They also transform business and society. These three changes (efficiencies, business transformation and social transformation) are felt ever more strongly in all value chains. Silvija explores their consequences and strategies for constructive futures.

The business and politics of data

The fourth industrial revolution is based on a cyber-digital cocktail of technologies, where the physical, biological, financial, social and legal worlds converge on a common platform and a common basic ingredient: data. The five most valuable companies in the world today all come from software, and their basic business model is to improve efficiencies in all value chains and all industries based on the data they amass. The way we deal with data will challenge and change not only our work and our capital, but also our societies and our humanity.

Greg Satell is a popular speaker, adviser and bestselling author of Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change, whose work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Barron’s, Forbes, Inc and Fast Company. His earlier book, Mapping Innovation, was selected as one of the best business titles of 2017.

An accomplished entrepreneur, executive and one of the foremost experts on innovation today, Greg speaks to audiences around the world and works with leading organizations to better compete in today’s disruptive marketplace. He was recently named by Innovation Excellence as #2 on its global list of “Top 40 Innovation Bloggers” and by IDG as one of “10 Digital Transformation Influencers to Follow Today.” Greg helps successful organizations overcome disruption and blaze a path to a better future.

A global citizen, Greg spent 15 years living and working in Eastern Europe where, among other things, he managed a leading news organization during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. You can learn more about Greg on his website, GregSatell.com and follow him on Twitter @DigitalTonto.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate.

Yassmin trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs around Australia for almost half a decade before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 2016. Yassmin’s critically acclaimed essays have been published in numerous anthologies, including the Griffith Review, the best-selling It’s Not About The Burqa and The New Daughters of Africa. Yassmin has also appeared at literary festivals around the world and her commentary can be found in publications like The Guardian, Teen Vogue and The New York Times.

Yassmin’s broadcasting portfolio is diverse: she presented the national TV show Australia Wide, a podcast on becoming an F1 driver, and a series on Breaking Barriers for Virgin. After hosting the internationally released documentary, The Truth About Racism, she created Hijabistas, a series looking at the modest fashion scene in Australia. Yassmin is also a regular contributor to the BBC, the hugely popular Guilty Feminist podcast and various media outlets around the world.

Yassmin has delivered keynotes and workshops in over 20 countries on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership, working with the likes of IBM, Chevron and Visa. Her TED talk, What does my headscarf mean to you, has been viewed over two million times and was chosen as one of TED’s top ten ideas of 2015. A regular viral sensation, Yassmin’s appearance on Q&A with former Senator Jacqui Lambie was viewed over 12 million times in less than a week, spurring a global conversation about being a young Muslim woman of colour in the West today.

With over a decade’s experience in non-profit governance, Yassmin founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the age of 16. She has since served on numerous board and councils, including the Council of Australian-Arab Relations, ChildFund and Electronic Frontiers Australia. She also served as the Gender Ambassador for the Inter-American Development bank. Yassmin has been awarded numerous awards nationally and internationally for her advocacy, including the 2018 Young Voltaire Award for Free Speech and Queensland Young Australian of the Year in 2015.

Yassmin is currently based in London.

Espen Høiby (born 1959) is a former airline captain for SAS and the founder and CEO of OSM Aviation. With an MBA from IMD in Switzerland, an Airline Transport Pilot license and more than 40 years of People-passion, entrepreneurship and aviation experience, Espen has brought forth infinite turnaround management, business development, and executive experience from major airlines and aviation training centers under his role as CEO. Other quality aspects include vast industry leadership in the introduction of innovative and disruptive business models and technological developments to the commercial airline industry.

In less than six years, Espen has expanded OSM Aviation’s growth from 0 to 6000 employees, operating in over 19 countries worldwide. As part of this success, OSM Aviation has been recognized as a leading aviation management company, specialized in the employment, training and administration of air crew and technical personnel worldwide.

In 2019, he was awarded the prize “Entrepreneur of the Decade” by Seed Forum Global as a recognition of his long experience, active involvement and effective entrepreneurship in multiple start-ups, most prominently, in building up OSM Aviation as a fast-growing international entrepreneurial success.
With a clear vision of being the world’s leading aviation management company and a firm determination of actively and positively shaping the future of aviation under the sentiment “It’s All About People”, OSM Aviation and its Academy are pioneering the way in the evolution of the training industry and the development, application and professionalization of the commercial drone segment.

Elin Nørve is the founder of Scandinavia’s largest youth development program: Future Leaders. She is one of Norway’s youngest operational leaders, and runs a company involving more than 50 active working young people and 230 active students in 2 countries.

With a new approach to leadership, corporate operations – yes, for the most part – she does things in her own way and is a front runner for the Millennials generation and the new working life. With a strong “why” in everything she does, focus on people and how they perform optimally, she represents a new form of leadership and company operation that focuses on sustainability, triple bottom line and the use of exponential technology.

A global company like Nokia, which spans the fast-moving worlds of telecoms and IT, needs not only keen insight to help make the right decisions, but also visionary outlook, to help place the right long-term bets.  Kåre – who has been with Nokia for almost 20 years in marketing, sales and strategy roles – and his close-knit global team specialize in understanding Nokia’s world, both as it is today and as it could be tomorrow to help the company make the right short and long-term decisions.

Kåre has spent the last six years in Nokia Corporate Strategy and Business Development team. Prior to this, he spent time in implementation of Nokia’s restructuring activities and more than twelve years in different technology sales and marketing roles in different regions of the world.

Florian Kolb, Managing Director for Innogy New Ventures, Silicon Valley.

Florian has more than 20 years of professional experience in tech and non-tech-related industries with a strong background in mergers & acquisitions, post-merger integration, operational management, restructuring and business development, market entry and innovation. He is acting as a mentor for various Singularity University programs and he is a regular speaker at key industry and innovation events and conferences. Florian holds a master degree in economics from the University of Passau, Germany. He participated in executive programs from leading academic institutions such as INSEAD Fontainebleau, IMD Lausanne and various RWE/innogy TOP 150 programs. He works and lives in Palo Alto, California.

Audun Abelsnes is the Managing Director of Techstars Energy in partnership with Equinor, Kongsberg and McKinsey. For several years, Audun Abelsnes has been part-responsible for the master-level course “New Venture Creation” (5th year) at BI Norwegian Business School (one of the Top50 business schools in Europe). He also founded and sold one company and he has been instrumental in funding and scaling up a medical diagnostic company. Audun Abelsnes has spent several years in PWC management consulting and holds a Master of Science in International Marketing from BI Norwegian Business School and City University in London.

Guro Knapstad is Business Development Manager in Kongsberg Digital and is currently working with development and commercialization of digital twins for industrial assets. She is also Kongsberg’s Corporate Liaison for the Techstars Energy Accelerator.

Knapstad has 13 years of experience in the energy sector, previously holding positions within business development for renewables and oil&gas in Norsk Hydro and Equinor. She holds a Master of Economics from Norwegian School of Economics and Sydney USNW.

In addition to working with innovation in Kongsberg Digital and Techstars, Knapstad is a small-scale investor in tech startups.

Geir Håøy is President and Chief Executive Officer in KONGSBERG ASA. Former President of Kongsberg Maritime with broad international experience from different positions in the company, including head of Kongsberg Maritime’s activities in Singapore and South-Korea. Engineer from Vestfold University College. Mr. Håøy has been with KONGSBERG since 1993.