Felipe Gonzalez (Chair)Born in 1942, is a Spanish social-democratic politician, who to date remains the longest-serving President of the Spanish Government, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.
As a leader of the PSOE he played a crucial role in Spains transition to democracy and in the approval of the Spanish Constitution. He led the country when it joined NATO, overcoming a difficult referendum, and the European Communities, after various unsuccessful attempts by the previous right-of-center governments. During his tenure in office Spain became a modern, stable and prosperous democracy.
He is Chairman of the Global Progress Foundation since 1997.
In July 2007 he was appointed as Senior Ambassador with Ministerial Rank for the 200th Jubilee of the Independence of Latin American Republics. The European Council of December 2007 chose Mr. Gonzalez as Chair of the Reflection Group Horizon 2020-2030.
Felipe González has been awarded the Charlemagne Prize, the Prize Carlos V of the Academia Europea of Yuste and he is Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universities of Toulouse and Tel-Aviv. He holds numerous national and foreign decorations, such as the Great Cross of Carlos III of Spain, the Great Cross of Merit of the Republic of Austria and others. He writes opinion articles for different newspapers, El Pais in particular, and has published several books, such as Un discurso ético (1982), El Socialismo (1997) or El Futuro no es lo queera, with J.L. Cebrian (2001).
Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Vice-Chair)
was born in Riga, Latvia in 1937. After fleeing the country before the invasion by the USSR, her family spent 4 years in refugee camps in Germany, then left for French Morocco and finally settled in Canada. After studies at the University of Toronto (B.A., M.A.) and McGill University (Ph.D.), she was a professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal (1965-1998). An interdisciplinary scholar known for her work in psycholinguistics, semiotics and analysis of the oral literature of her native country, she is a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an associate member of the Académie Royale de Belgique. She speaks English, French, German, Spanish and Latvian.
After repatriating in 1998, Prof.Dr. Freiberga was elected President of the Republic of Latvia in 1999 and reelected in 2003. She has been instrumental in achieving membership in the European Union and NATO for her country, was named Special Envoy to the Secretary General on United Nations reform in 2005 and was an official candidate for UN Secretary General in 2006. She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders (since 1999), the Club of Madrid (2007) and the European Council on Foreign Relations. She has received many prizes and honours, 34 Orders of Merit and 16 honorary doctorates.
Jorma Ollila (Vice Chair)
was born in 1950 and is Chairman and former CEO of the Nokia Corporation and Member of the Board of Directors of Otava Books and Magazines Group Ltd. He has been Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell and Chairman of Nokia as of June 2006. Prior to joining Nokia in 1985 Jorma Ollila worked eight years in corporate banking at Citibanks London and Helsinki offices.
Jorma Ollila earned a Masters degree in Political Science from Helsinki University, a second Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics and a third Masters in Engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1981.
In 2003, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and was awarded Honorary Membership of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. Mr. Ollila also earned Honorary Doctorates from both the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University of Technology.
Lykke Friis
was born in 1969 and works as a Pro-Vice chancellor at the University of Copenhagen. In addition to Ph.D. degree and MA in Political Science at the University of Copenhagen she has M.Sc. in European Studies and Political Science at the London School of Economics.
Prior to her job at the University Prof. Dr. Friis worked ao. as a Research Director at the Danish Institute of International Affairs and as a Director of European Affairs at the Confederation of Danish Industries. Ms. Friis is a regular columnist on EU Affairs (Danish daily Berlingske Tidende) and on international issues (Danish business daily/Borsen). Her numerous honorary offices includes, inter alia, being member of the Danish Governments Council on Climate Change and Sustainability, and member of the Council of the Danish Atlantic Treaty Association.
Rem Koolhaas
was born in 1944 and graduated from the Architectural Association in London. He was one of the founders of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in 1975 (OMA), and at this moment is heading its work and work of AMO – the conceptual branch of OMA, a think tank focused on social, economic and technological issues. Rem Koolhaas – and OMA – has won several international awards, such as Pritzker Architecture Prize and RIBA Gold Metal and he has been awarded the French Legion of Honour in 2001. In 2007 he was elected to the European Council of Foreign Relations. The creative think tank AMOsrecent projects include a study for the European Commission on the visual identity of the EU and a study concerning preservation for the city of Beijing.
Richard Lambert
born in 1944, is the Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, where he focuses his work on climate change, financial services, education and skills and science and technology. After finishing his history studies at Balliol College, Oxford, he joined the Financial Times where he occupied several, important posts until 2001: he edited the Lex column, he was financial editor and he set up a US version of the paper.
Richard Lambert has been awarded several honorary doctorates and he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Warwick in 2008.
Mario Monti
was born in 1943 in Varese, Italy. He is currently President of Milans Bocconi University. Has served in two European Commissions (1999-2005 Competition portfolio; 1995-1999 Single Market, Financial Services and Tax Policy). He has been a member of the board of directors of several companies.
Prof.Dr. Monti was a regular contributor to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera from 1978 to 1994. A collection of his essays was published under the title Il governo delleconomia e della moneta. Contributi per unItalia europea: 1970 – 1992 (Longanesi, 1992). He is the author of many publications, in particular on monetary and financial economics, fiscal policy and European integration. He served as President of SUERF (Société Universitaire Européenne de Recherches Financières) from 1982 to 1985 and of the Treasury Ministrys Committee on the Italian financial system which indicated the lines for the nations financial policies for the eighties.
Rainer Münz
was born in 1954 and is Head of Research & Development at Erste Group Bank AG and Senior Fellow at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI). He is an expert on population change, international migration and demographic aging, their economic impact and their implications for social security.
Dr. Münz has worked as consultant for the European Commission, the OECD and the World Bank. He served as an advisor to the Greek (2003), Dutch (2004) and Slovene (2008) EU presidencies. In 2000-01 he was member of the German commission on immigration reform (Süssmuth commission). He is a member of several boards and advisory boards, among them: International Organization for Migration (IOM, Geneva), World Demographic Association (WDA, St. Gallen), Center for Migration, Integration and Citizenship at Oxford University (COMPAS, Oxford, UK), International Metropolis Project (Ottawa – Amsterdam), Daimler-Benz Foundation (Ladenburg, Germany), SOT Accountants (Vienna-Graz-Munich), VBV Pension Insurance (Vienna), STUWO AG (Vienna), Institute for the Danube region and Central Europe (Vienna).
Kalypso Nicolaïdis
was born in 1962. Among her accolades Nicolaïdis holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University and a Master of Political Science, Paris. She is of French and Greek nationality with German and Spanish origins and married to a British citizen. She is Professor of International Relations and Director of the European Studies Centre at Oxford University. She teaches on European integration, international relations, international political economy, negotiation and game theory as well as research methods. She taught at Harvard University where she was associate professor at the Kennedy School of Government. She has also held visiting professorships around Europe, including at the Ecole Nationale dAdministration in Paris, at the College of Europe in Bruges as the professorial chair on Visions of Europe and in Sciences-Po, Paris as Vincent Wright chair.
Much of Dr. Nicolaidis’ recent work focuses on “European demoi-cracy” and the challenge of building an EU of deep diversity through the mutual recognition of identities, policies, and socio-economic rules. She has published widely on EU institutional and constitutional debates, EU external relations including Mediterranean countries and the United States, issues of identity, justice and cooperation in the international system, the sources of legitimacy in European and global governance, the relationship between trade and regulation, trade in services as well as preventive diplomacy and dispute resolution.
Nicole Notat
was born at Châtrices in France in 1947 into a family with a farming background. She went on to become a teacher of children with difficulties; participated in the May 1968 movement and notably was the first woman to manage a trade union in France.
Ms. Notat is the ex secretary-general of the trade union CFDT. She is currently chief executive officer of Vigeo where she is involved with the concept of sustainable development.
Wolfgang Schuster
was born at Ulm in 1949. He has been the Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Germany since January 1997. In 2004 Schusters re-election to office was attributed to Stuttgarts favourable economic development during his first term. Schuster studied law and political science in Tubingen, Geneva and Freiburg from 1969 to 1973. From 1974 to 1976 he trained in Ulm before completing his doctorate in civil law, and at the Paris Ecole nationale dadministration from 1976 to 1977.
Dr. Schuster has a declared aim to turn Stuttgart into Germanys most child-friendly city. The biggest and most high-profile project during his office has been Stuttgart 21 – a major rail project to build a new underground through station for Stuttgart.
Lech Walesa
was born in 1943 in Popowo, Poland. After graduating from vocational school, he worked as a car mechanic at a machine centre from 1961 to 1965. He served in the army for two years, rose to the rank of corporal, and in 1967 was employed in the Gdansk shipyards as an electrician. During the clash in December 1970 between the workers and the government, he was one of the leaders of the shipyard workers and was briefly detained. In 1976, however, as a result of his activities as a shop steward, he was fired and had to earn his living by taking temporary jobs. In 1978 with other activists he began to organise free non-communist trade unions and took part in many actions on the sea coast. He was kept under surveillance by the state security service and frequently detained. In September 1981 he was elected Solidarity Chairman at the First National Solidarity Congress in Gdansk. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
In December 1990 he was elected President of the Republic of Poland and served until November 1995. Walesa has been granted many honorary degrees from universities, including Harvard University and the University of Paris. Other honors include the Medal of Freedom (Philadelphia, U.S.A.); the Award of Free World (Norway); and the European Award of Human Rights.
