Academician Jaak Aaviksoo was nominated as the Rector of Tallinn University of Technology in September 2015. Former roles have included being the Minister of Education and Research and the Minister of Defence of Estonia. He has also been elected twice as the Rector of Tartu University and serving as EUA Board member. Before becoming the Rector of Tartu University he was Professor of optics and spectroscopy at Tartu University heading the Institute of experimental physics.
In 1994 he was elected to the Estonian Academy of Science. Rector Aaviksoo has worked in many foreign institutes as a guest professor: Novosibirsk Institute of Thermal Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Osaka University and Paris Diderot University.

Alexander Stubb is Vice-President of the European Investment Bank since August 2017. His oversights include the Bank’s financing activities in the Nordics, Baltics and a number of Eastern European countries; Funding & Treasury; EU Multiannual Financial Framework; Security & Defence; Corporate Responsibility; Gender Equality and Diversity & Inclusion. Alex Stubb served as Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, Trade and Europe Minister of Finland. His background is in academia and civil service, with a focus on EU affairs. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2004-2008, a government minister from 2008-16, a member of parliament from 2011-2017 and chairman of the National Coalition Party from 2014-16. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, has published 18 books and is a self-professed sports fanatic.

Carlota Perez studies the socio-economic impact of technical change and the historical context for growth and development. She is currently Visiting Professor of International Development at the London School of Economics, Professor of Technology and Development at the Nurkse Institute, TUT, Estonia, Honorary Professor at SPRU, University of Sussex and at IIPP-UCL, UK. Her long career has combined civil service, academic research and teaching, and she has acted as consultant for several governments; for international organisations such as the EU, UNIDO, CEPAL, the Andean Pact, the World Bank, and the OECD; and for many global corporations including IBM, Cisco, Telefonica and Ericsson. Author of the influential Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages (Elgar 2002), the Venezuelan-British scholar is currently working on a sequel, analysing the roles that government, business and civil society play in shaping the potential of technological revolutions.

Said Hamdioui is currently Chair Professor on Dependable and Emerging Computer Technologies and Head of the Computer Engineering Laboratory (CE-Lab) of the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He received the MSEE and PhD degrees (both with honors) from TUDelft. Prior to joining TUDelft as a professor, Hamdioui spent about seven years within industry including Microprocessor Products Group at Intel Corporation, IP and Yield Group at Philips Semiconductors R&D and DSP design group at Philips/ NXP Semiconductors. His research focuses on two domains: Dependable CMOS nano-computing (including Reliability, Testability, Hardware Security) and emerging technologies and computing paradigms (including 3D stacked ICs, memristors for logic and storage, and in-memory-computing).
Hamdioui owns two patents (and one pending) and has written one book, contributed to two books, and published over 180 conference and journal papers. He has consulted for many companies (such as Intel, ST, Altera, Atmel, Renesas. He has collaborated with many industry/research partners like Intel, IMEC, NXP, Intrinsic ID, DS2, ST Microelectronics, IBM, Politic di Torino, etc.
He is strongly involved in the international community as a member of organizing committees or a member of the technical program committees of the leading conferences. He delivered dozens of keynote speeches, distinguished lectures, and invited presentations and tutorial at major international forums/conferences/schools and at leading semiconductor companies. Hamdioui is the recipient many international awards, among others the European Design Automation Association Outstanding Dissertation Award 2001 and the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Frontier of Computer Science and Technology FCST-2017.

Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of Stanford University’s H-STAR institute and a co-founder of the Stanford mediaX research network. He is a World Economic Forum Fellow, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. His current research is focused on the use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse audiences. In this connection, he is a co-founder and President of an educational technology company, BrainQuake, that creates mathematics learning video games. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis.
Other research interests include: theory of information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition. He has written 33 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient of the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. In 2003, he was recognized by the California State Assembly for his “innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to logic and linguistics.” He is “the Math Guy” on National Public Radio.

Toru Iiyoshi is Deputy Vice President for Education, and Director and a professor at the Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education of Kyoto University. He also serves as Executive Director of KyotoUx, the institutional MOOC initiative.
Dr. Iiyoshi works with various national and international initiatives, projects, and organizations in an advisory role to provide vision and leadership in the development and distribution of innovative educational technology. Previously, he was a senior scholar and Director of the Knowledge Media Laboratory at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Senior Strategist in the Office of Educational Innovation and Technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education as well as a visiting professor of Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo. He is a co-editor of the Carnegie Foundation book, “Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge” (MIT Press).

Dr. Noah Raford is the Chief Operating Officer, “Futurist-in-Chief” at the Dubai Future Foundation and a former advisor on futures, foresight, and innovation in the UAE Prime Minister’s Office.
Noah helped establish the country’s first national foresight unit, helped established the Dubai Future’s Foundation and the Museum of the Future, and is part of a team that identifies emerging opportunities, develops strategic partnerships, and prototypes future initiatives for the Government of Dubai.
Some the projects he has recently been involved with include:

• The Museum of the Future
• The Dubai Global Blockchain Council
• The UAE Drones for Good Award
• The UAE Robotics for Good Award
• The Dubai 3D Printing Strategy
• The Dubai Self-Driving Vehicle Strategy
• The International Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (iCAIR)
• The “Office of the Future”; the world’s first fully functional 3D printed building.

Prior to his work in the UAE, Noah was a senior manager at the strategy consultancy Monitor / GBN, CEO of the technology foresight company Futurescaper LLC, the North American Director of Space Syntax Limited, and the Senior Research Advisor to Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment.
Noah completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), his masters degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and his undergraduate studies at Brown University. He is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, a Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, a fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture, a member of the International Futures Forum.
He lives in Dubai, is married with two children and is a semi-retired techno DJ. He maintains an occasional podcast called NerdHouse(mixing deep techno with deep lectures and spoken word) and recently finished his second book, “Warlords, Inc.”.

Mr. Hando Sutter has been Chairman of Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of Eesti Energia AS since December 01, 2014. Mr. Sutter has served as the regional manager of Nord Pool Spot power exchange in the Baltics and Russia and he has previously worked in ESS Group (renamed to G4S Estonia), Tolaram Investments, Olympic Entertainment Group and US Invest.
He has a degree in mechanical engineering from Tallinn Technical University and has taken a MBA course in business administration from Estonian Business School.

Helena Almqvist is Managing Director of Protex Balti AS, leading provider of advanced textile solutions to Scandinavian market. The company is a subsidiary of Protex AS (Norway) and currently employs 230 people in Estonia. Today Protex technical/smart portfolio is fast-growing and represents 52% of total turnover and the company has entered strong strategic partnerships with European frontrunners in ICT, electronics, and R&D.
Helena started her career in Protex as Chief Business Development Officer in 2012, implementing a broad restructuring of the business portfolio towards high profile technical customers.
Helena has a diversity of public appointments such as Chairman of Foreign Investors Council in Estonia (FICE) and background from Business Sweden, Wireless Car, and Swedish Foreign Ministry. She has M. Sc. In Business Administration, Gothenburg University of Economics and Commercial Law, Strategic Management Program at Stockholm School of Economics Executive Education (SSE Riga).
Helena is passionate about innovation, business development, and entrepreneurship.

René is a Serial Entrepreneur, Investor, the former Manager of the TTÜ Innovation and Business Centre and the Co-founder and CEO of Optofluid Technologies.