The great conference of ideas and developments

Carl Gershman is the president of the Washington DC-based National Endowment for Democracy, an institution with the mission to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through non-governmental efforts. The World Movement for Democracy, which was founded under his leadership in India in 1999, held its fifth global assembly in Kyiv in 2008. Prior to assuming the position with the Endowment, Mr. Gershman was Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nation. Mr. Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles and reviews on foreign policy issues for leading international publications, is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His work in advancing democracy has been recognized worldwide and on behalf of NED, he has accepted awards from the governments of Poland, Romania, Korea, Lithuania and from numerous NGOs internationally. A frequent visitor to Ukraine, he most recently traveled there in April 2015. Born in New York City in 1943, he received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1965 and M.Ed. from Harvard University in 1968.

Joanna Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer of ConnectIreland, a globally unique job creation initiative which emerged from the Global Irish Economic forum in 2011. The programme is internationally award winning and is recognised as a global exemplar of best citizen engagement with more than 100,000 connectors in 147 countries worldwide. The mission of ConnectIreland is to mobilise the Global Irish community to introduce companies planning to expand to Europe, establish in Ireland or invest in Ireland thereby creating employment most particularly in regional Ireland. ConnectIreland is creating over 3000 jobs in Ireland to date with a net return to the Irish exchequer of 1.6 billion euros in terms of GDP. Joanna has a wealth of entrepreneurial experience and prior to joining ConnectIreland founded and successfully ran two companies in the construction and civil engineering space. A visionary strategist, Joanna has catapulted ConnectIreland’s brand engagement and extended its reach through strategic partnerships with leading global organisations. Joanna leads ConnectIreland’s international growth and strategic vision. She has brought energy and passion to the leadership team since joining ConnectIreland in 2013. In July 2015 she was appointed as Chief Executive. She holds a first class honours degree in business studies.

Pasi Sahlberg is a professor of education policy at the Gonski Institute for Education, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He is a Finnish educator and author who has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policy advisor in Finland and has studied education systems, analysed education policies, and advised education reforms around the world. He has written and spoken widely about these topics, his book “Finnish Lessons 2.0: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland” won the 2013 Grawemeyer Award for an idea that has potential to change the world. He is also a recipient of the 2012 Education Award in Finland, the 2014 Robert Owen Award in Scotland, the 2016 Lego Prize, and Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Resident Fellowship in 2017. He is a former senior education specialist at the World Bank, a lead education expert at the European Training Foundation (European Commission), a director general at the Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture, and a visiting Professor of Practice at Harvard University. He chairs the Open Society Foundations’ Education Board and is a member of the Governing Board of the University of Oulu and the International Council of Education Advisors (ICEA) for the Scottish Government. His recent books are “Hard Questions on Global Educational Change”, “Empowered Educators in Finland” (co-authored with Karen Hammerness and Raisa Ahtiainen) and “FinnishED Leadership: Four Big, Inexpensive Ideas to Transform Education”.

Nerijus Mačiulis works at Swedbank as a chief economist. He has graduated from Vytautas Magnus and ISM universities as well as has written and passed Ph.D. defence in revaluation speculative attacks and the insurance of exchange rate risk. Previously Nerijus lectured at universities in France, Mexico, Switzerland, and Australia. He is the author of several publications on currency crises, international finance, and economic integration as well as a member of the editorial board of scientific journal Baltic Journal of Economics.

Gitanas Nausėda is a well-known Lithuanian economist currently working as an advisor to the president and chief economist at SEB Bank. He has work experience as a lecturer as well. Gitanas has graduated from Manheim university in Germany and Vilnius university. At the latter he has passed Ph.D. defence and earned doctoral degree.

Žygimantas Mauricas works as a chief economist at Luminor Bank. He has studied in Riga and Switzerland, passed Ph.D. defence at ISM university in Lithuania. At the latter has been lecturing for many years.

Andrius Tapinas is a well-known journalist and TV host. He has written a bestseller Hour of the Wolf as well as its sequel. In 2016 he established an Internet channel Laisvės TV that has been supported by people. Andrius Tapinas could be titled as a social media star as he is one of the most popular Lithuanians on Facebook.

Vytautas Landsbergis is a politician and a historian in arts and music. He has published approximately 30 books in which, at first, he analysed the works of M. K. Čiurlionis, whereas later he went deeper into issues related to Lithuanian and international politics.