Ms Karen Ellemann is the Danish Minister for Environment and Nordic Cooperation and was appointed in February 2010. She is a member of the party “Venstre.”

Ms Maliina Abelsen is the Greenlandic Minister for Social Affairs and Gender Equality and was appointed in June 2009. She is a member of the party “Inuit Ataqatigiit”. As well as a B.A. in sociology, Maliina Abelsen holds an M.A. in Politics and Social Science from Macquarie University in Australia. She is a trained and internationally-certified coach and has passed the United Nations' National Competitive Recruitment Examination.

Mr Jørgen Niclasen is the Faroese Minister for Foreign Affairs and Nordic Cooperation and was appointed in 2008. He is the leader of the Conservative party in the Faroe Islands.

Ms Sheila Riordon is the Canadian Senior Arctic Offical to the Arctic Council and leads for Canada on a range of Circumpolar and international aboriginal issues. She is the Director General of the Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development Bureau in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In this capacity she is responsible for the formulation and delivery of Canada’s foreign policy across a wide range of issues including climate change, international energy matters, trade and the environment and sustainable development. Previously, Ms. Riordon held a number of positions in the Government of Canada.  Recently, as the Director General of the Northern Oil and Gas Branch in the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, she held broad responsibilities related to Northern Oil and Gas policy.  She also previously held the position of Director General of Energy Policy Branch in the Department of Natural Resources for the Government of Canada, where she was responsible for international and domestic energy and environmental issues. She has a BA in Political Science and an M.B.A.

Ms Sinikka Bohlin is a member of the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen, and has been so since 1998. She is the Chair of The Swedish Delegation to the Nordic Council and member of the Standing Committee of the Arctic Parliamentarians.
Mr. Anton Vasiliev is Russian Ambassador at Large (Arctic Cooperation) and Senior Arctic Official of Russia in the Arctic Council, Senior Official of Russia in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and Chairman of the Committee of Senior Officials of BEAC for the period of Russian Chairmanship of the Council in 2007-2009.  He has since 1976 held different positions in the Foreign Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Mr. Vasiliev has an academic background in international relations and holds a ph.d. in economics.

Mr Eddy Hartog is the Head of Unit of the Arctic and Antarctic Unit at the General Directorate for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries in the European Commission. He has had various positions in the European Commission since 1989 and before that in the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands. Mr. Hartog has an academic background in political economics from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and College of Europe of Bruges, Belgium.

Ms Jessica Shadian (Ph. D.) is a Senior Research Fellow at the High North Center for Business and Governance at the Bodø Graduate School for Business in Bodø, Norway. She has a PhD in Global Governance from the University of Delaware, USA. Her dissertation investigated the implications of indigenous autonomy on Western conceptions of sovereignty and Arctic governance as manifest in the work of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. Dr. Shadian’s current research explores the emerging political changes in the Arctic including the historical, legal and political issues of industrial development and sustainable resource management with a view towards understanding and mitigating relations between policy makers, private industry and local communities. Her academic publications include her recent work on the International Polar Year as a book co-editor entitled: Legacies and Change in Polar Science: Historical, Legal and Political Reflections on the International Polar Year by Ashgate Press and her forthcoming book co-authored with Rob Huebert which is a University textbook entitled: The Arctic in Global Affairs: A Region in Transformation by Continuum Press.

Mr Robert Corell is the Principal for the Global Environment & Technology Foundation, and represents the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment in the Arctic Governance Project. Dr. Corell is actively engaged in research concerned with the sciences of global change and the interface between science and public policy, particularly research activities that are focused on global and regional climate change, related environmental issues, and science to facilitate understanding of vulnerability and sustainable development. He co-chairs an international strategic planning group that is developing a strategy designed to harness science, technology, and innovation for sustainable development. He served as the Chair of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

Ms Katrín Jakobsdottír is the Minister of Nordic Cooperation and Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland. Mrs. Jakobsdóttir has a Bachelor´s Degree in Icelandic with French as minor subject and a Master´s Degree in Icelandic Literature from the University of Iceland. Alongside her studies and during her professional career, she has been politically active, within the Student Council of the University of Iceland and subsequently within the Left Green Movement. After completing her education, she did program planning and literary work for various media, advising and editorial work and became a lecturer and teacher, among others for the University of Iceland and the University of Reykjavik. Katrín Jakobsdóttir became a Member of Parliament in 2007, representing the Left Green Movement, and in 2009 was appointed Minister of Education, Science and Culture as well as Minister of Nordic Cooperation.

Mr Karsten Klepsvik is Norway’s Senior Arctic Official in the Arctic Council. He is furthermore the Polar Affairs Advisor and Norwegian Commissioner/Ambassador to the International Whaling Commission. Mr. Klepsvik has held different positions in the Ministry of Fisheries and the Foreign Affairs Minstry of Norway since 1990 and has an academic background in political science and international economics.

Ms Hege Marie Norheim is a graduate of economics and business administration from the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen and Business Administration and St Gallen University in Switzerland. For several years she worked as advisor at the Norwegian Prime Minister's Office. In 2000 she was state secretary to the Prime Minister and in 2001 state secretary to the Minister of Finance. She joined Norsk Hydro in 2002 as Director of Communication for the oil and gas division, and later Partner Operated Licenses. In 2005 Hege Marie Norheim was elected as the first female vice president in the WPC executive committee, a position she held until 2007. When Norsk Hydro merged with Statoil she took over the responsibility for business development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the new company. Since 2009 she had been the head of Statoil’s strategic agenda of arctic and sub-arctic business development activities.

Mr Hjaltí Jóhannesson holds a MA degree in economic geography from York University Toronto 1990 and finished his undergraduate studies in geography from University of Iceland 1987. He has a professional experience from municipal government, research and government. Since December 2000 mr. Jóhannesson has been working as a researcher and assistant director at the University of Akureyri Research Centre and a lecturer at the University of Akureyri. Between 1998 and 2000 he was a specialist at the Planning Department of Akureyri municipality and 1993-1998 he was a manager for the association of municipalities in Northeast Iceland. Mr. Jóhannesson was a specialist at the Ministry of communications 1990-1992. 

Dr Tatiana Saksina is a Russian national and is the Arctic Governance Officer at the WWF International Arctic Initiative. She leads WWF's work to promote the closure of the Arctic governance gaps, protection and preservation of the Arctic Ocean and sustainable ecosystem-based management of its resources.  In this capacity she leads WWF's efforts on improvements to the arctic governance and regulatory regime. Before joining WWF, Dr. Saksina worked for the Russian Academy of Sciences as a Senior Legal Adviser responsible for marine policies. She holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and an LL.M. degree in International Maritime Law from the IMO International Maritime Law Institute. She specializes in the Law of the Sea and International Law.

Mr Johan Tiedemann is the State Secretary to the Swedish Minister for Nordic Cooperation, Cristina Husmark Pehrsson. He has been Federation Secretary of the Moderate Party Youth Organization, Assistant Secretary at the Stockholm Municipality Council, and held several positions in the Municipality of Sigtuna. Between 1982 and 2003 he was Member of the Governing Board of the Municipality of Sigtuna. He has also worked many years at the Parliament Cabinet of the Moderate Party, where he held positions such as Vice Council Director and Administrator of Cultural Policy. Since 2006 he has been first State Secretary of Culture, and now State Secretary of Nordic Cooperation. He studied language at Stockholm University. 

Ms Gunn-Britt Retter is a Saami from Unjárga / Nesseby in Varanger, north-east Norway. Retter is chair of the local Saami association, vice-chair to the Norwegian Saami Association and Member of Saami Parliament, Norway. In her position as head of the Arctic and Environmental Unit in the Saami Council, Retter has been involved in issues related to indigenous peoples and climate change, biodiversity, language, pollution and management of natural resources. Retter is a teacher of training and holds a Master of Arts in Bilingual Studies from the University of Wales

Mr Birger Poppel is Research Project Chief of the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic, SLiCA at Ilisimatusarfik, the University of Greenland. He is currently engaged in different research projects such as the SWIPA-IT (Snow, Water, Ice, Permafrost in the Arctic Integration), Human dimensions of changes in the cryosphere; Understanding Migration in the Circumpolar North (UMCN) and tTeam member of the Arctic Council project: Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) as well as of the Political Economy of Northern Regional Development). Since 2004 he has been serving as a member of the Editorial Board of Social Indicator Research, SIR (An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of Life Measurement).He has been a member of the IASSA (International Arctic Social Sciences Association) council since 2001 and served in the term 2004-2008 as vice president of the association and was the convener of the sixth International Congress on Arctic Social Sciences, ICASS VI (Nuuk, August 2008). He was the chairman of the Greenland IPY Committee since 2005 and served as a member of the IPY Data Sub Committee. He is currently a member of the Board of Governors of Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland. . He was the first head of Statistics Greenland and served as Chief Statistician from 1989-2004. He received an MA in Economics from the University of Copenhagen (1978)

Ms Vappu Sunnari is a University Lecturer in Women’s Studies, University of Oulu, Finland and is a doctor of Education. She is specialised in women and gender studies and is engaged in a network is concentrating on researching violence in schools and in teacher education with a special focus on power and representations of femininity, masculinity and sexuality. The network is organised between research groups from Finland, Norway, Sweden and North-West Russia, and with financial support from the Nordic research programme "Gender and Violence".

Mr Hans Hinrichsen is the manager of the Mining & Contracting School in Sisimiut, Greenland and has been a project manager and technical coordinator at Centre of Arctic Technology. He has 4 years experience as a course manager at technical school in Greenland and has been teaching 12 years at the technical school in Greenland. He has an educational background as a technical installation designer.

Mr Kim Luotonen is the Finnish Head of Secretariat for Nordic Co-operation at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and has held several positions within the Finnish Foreign Ministry since 1975, including ambassador to the Republic of Korea and to Singapore. He has an academic background in Economics and Business Administration from the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration

Mr Halldór Ásgrímsson has since 1 January 2007 been the Secretary General for the Nordic Council of Ministers. Mr. Ásgrímsson is an Icelandic national and has a held several minister posts in the period 1988-2006 including Prime Minister (2004-2006) Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Defence and Foreign Aid (1995-2004) and Minister for Nordic Co-operation (1985-1987/1995-1999).
 
Mr Martin Breum – the moderator of the conference – is a Danish journalist and former news host at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). He is currently on leave from DR and working on media projects in China related to International Media Support as well as working a book on the Arctic.