Paul Andrew Mayewski is Director of the Climate Change Institute and Distinguished Professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences, School of Marine Sciences, School of Policy and International Affairs, the Business School, and the Center for Ocean and Coastal Law (Law School) at the University of Maine.

He has led more than 55 expeditions to some of the remotest polar and high altitude reaches of the planet (e.g., Antarctica, Greenland, Himalayas, Tibet, Andes, sub-Antarctic Islands).  He has more than 450 scientific publications and has received numerous honors including the first internationally awarded Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research, the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Medal, honorary PhD from Stockholm University, honorary fellow in the American Polar Society, and fellow in the American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Explorers Club.

Dr. Mayewski has  developed and led major international and national climate change research programs in Antarctica, Greenland, Asia and New England and worked with outreach entities such as the American Museum of Natural History and Boston Museum of Science.  He has released two popular books and has appeared hundreds of times in the media including multiple CBS 60 Minutes broadcasts, several NOVA films, NPR pieces and the 2014 Emmy Award winner “Years of Living Dangerously”.

Gail Whiteman is Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School (UK), and Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where she is actively involved in building science-based targets including those for a future low-carbon economy. Dr. Whiteman is an expert on global socio-economic risks emerging from climate change.

She is the founder and Executive Director of Arctic Basecamp, a unique the science-communication platform with a flagship event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

She has published over 60 academic papers including co-authored pieces with Christiana Figueres, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.  She is a regular contributor to the World Economic Forum’s online Agenda.

Dr. Whiteman earned a Ph.D. in business organization and management at  Queen’s University (Canada).

Ulf Sverdrup is the Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Before taking up the position at NUPI, he was a professor at the Norwegian Business School (BI) and a research professor at ARENA, Centre for European Studies, at the University of Oslo. Dr. Sverdrup has been a Jean Monnet fellow at the European University Institute, (Italy), and a visiting scholar at the Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (Germany).  He has also worked as senior advisor in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a regular contributor to Dagens Næringsliv and to the Arctic Security Roundtable organized jointly by the Munich Security Conference, the Wilson Centre and NUPI. He earned his Master’s degree at the University of Bergen and a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Oslo.

Fran Ulmer is the former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, retiring in July 2020 after serving since her appointment by President Obama in March 2011. In June 2010, President Obama had appointed her to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Ms. Ulmer is now a Senior Fellow at the Arctic Initiative in the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  Her research interests include energy, environmental policy, natural resource management and sustainable development.

She is also a member of the Global Board of the Nature Conservancy and on the Board of the National Parks Conservation Association.

From 2007 to 2011, Ms. Ulmer was chancellor of Alaska's largest public university, the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Before that, she was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA.

Ms. Ulmer served as an elected official for 18 years as the mayor of Juneau, as a state representative, and as Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. She previously worked as legal counsel to the Alaska Legislature, legislative assistant to Governor Jay Hammond, and Director of Policy Development for the state. In addition, she was the first Chair of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council and served for more than 10 years on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. She has served on numerous local, state, and federal advisory committees and boards.

She earned a J.D. cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Michael Bravo is University Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Downing College, University of Cambridge (UK).  He is  Head of Circumpolar History and Public Policy Research at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

Dr. Bravo’s most recent book, North Pole: Nature and Culture, spans five centuries of history and the role of scientific exploration in the development of the Arctic region.  His Pan-Inuit Trails Atlas, based on traditional Inuit knowledge and maps drawn for visiting scientists, missionaries and travels over centuries,  shows the network of trails on land and water that Inuit peoples travelled and used to communicate over great distances, from Alaska to Greenland

In Arctic Geopolitics and Autonomy (2011), Dr. Bravo explores how technologies have transformed relationships between environment and politics for Inuit and other northern peoples.  He explores topic such as the effectiveness of  new green technologies for Arctic societies in reducing dependence on hydrocarbons and building autonomy.

He earned a B. Eng. in Telecommunications Engineering from Carleton University in Canada, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge University

Sergei Medvedev is a Russian journalist, television and radio host and political scientist. Before he decided to leave the Higher School of Economics in Moscow in October 2020, he had been a professor there for 16 years and earned multiple teaching awards. He had previously worked at the Marshall Center for Security Studies in Germany, the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Helsinki), the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Ebenhausen), the Istituto Affari Internazionali (Rome) and the Institute of Europe (Moscow).

Dr. Medvedev advocates international control over the Arctic, based on the Antarctic model. He believes Russia has a special responsibility when it comes to protecting the Arctic and advocates a ban on oil drilling and any economic activity and a ban on military actions and movements, on nuclear tests, on the deployment of military bases. 

A critic of the Putin regime, Dr. Medvedev’s most recent book is The Return of the Russian Leviathan (2019).

He earned a B.A. in International Journalism from Charles University in Prague, a M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, and a Ph.D in History of International Relations and Foreign Policy from the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Medvedev has completed dozens of world marathons, several mountain marathons and ultramarathons in the Alps, the Tour Transalp cycle race (twice), and the Arctic Circle Race ski race in Greenland (twice).

Thomas Nilsen is editor of The Barents Observer, based at its news desk in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio and newspaper reporter and as far back as the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Mr. Nilsen has been editor of The Barents Observer since 2009, including the period when its staff were employees of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. In 2015, the Secretariat decided that the newspaper no longer should have the editorial freedom that comes with what its staff believed to be the rights and duties of the editor. Journalistic freedom and independence were core values for the staff reporters, and all left and relaunched the newspaper in October 2015 as a journalist-owned, independent company.

Before 2009, Mr. Nilsen was deputy head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. Before 2003, he worked 12 years for the Bellona Foundation’s Russian study group, focusing on nuclear safety issues and general environmental challenges in northern areas and the Arctic. 

He has travelled extensively in the Barents Region and northern Russia since the late 80’s while working for different media and organizations. He is also a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security issues, environmental and socio-economic development in the Barents Region. Mr. Nilsen studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

David Balton is a Senior Fellow at the Polar Institute in the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Ambassador Balton previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries in the Department of State, attaining the rank of Ambassador in 2006. He coordinated U.S. foreign policy concerning oceans and fisheries, as well as issues relating to the Arctic and Antarctica, and oversaw U.S. participation in international organizations dealing with these issues.

Ambassador Balton has been the lead U.S. negotiator on a wide range of agreements. During the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2015-2017), he served as Chair of the Senior Arctic Officials. He also co-chaired Arctic Council Task Forces that produced the 2011 Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement and the 2013 Arctic Oil Pollution Agreement. He separately chaired negotiations to produce an Arctic fisheries agreement.

At the State Department, he had previously been Director of the Office of Marine Conservation and in the Officer of Legal Advisor, where he dealt with issues related to the law of the sea, human rights and international claims.

Ambassador Balton received an A.B. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Georgetown University. He has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra (juggling oranges).

Gunn-Britt Retter is Head of the Arctic and Environmental Unit of the Saami Council, which represents indigenous Saami organizations in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.  She works on issues related to indigenous peoples and indigenous knowledge, including climate change, biodiversity, pollution, management of natural resources, and language.  Previously, she had worked on environmental issues at the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat in Copenhagen, Denmark.  She has participated in numerous senior-level Arctic Council and United Nations meetings on climate science, biodiversity, and related issues. 

Ms. Retter is a board member of the Sámi University of Applied Sciences and the International Sámi Film institute (ISFI) and has served for two terms in the Saami Parliament (Norway).

Ms. Retter was born and raised in the coastal Saami community of Unjárga-Nesseby by Varangerfjord in northeastern Norway. She was trained as a teacher at Sámi University College (Guovdageaidnu - Kautokeino, Norway) and holds an MA in Bilingual studies from the University of Wales.

Sara Olsvig is a Ph.D. Fellow at Ilisimatusarfik, the University of Greenland, and the current chairwoman of Greenland’s Human Rights Council. Ms. Olsvig is an assigned member of the Constitutional Commission of Greenland. She served as member of the Parliament of Denmark and the Parliament of Greenland in the years 2011 to 2018 and has been leader of the political party Inuit Ataqatigiit. Ms. Olsvig was Vice Premier and Minister of Social Affairs, Families, Gender Equality and Justice in the Government of Greenland from 2016 to 2018. She was also the Chairperson of the Standing Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region.

Ms. Olsvig holds an MSc in Anthropology.  She had previously worked as Executive Director for Inuit Circumpolar Council Greenland, to which she is today a delegate. She is Inuk and lives in Nuuk, Greenland with her partner and their children.