Monday, 21st January
 Branko Milanovic | Branko Milanovic is a Visiting Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center City University of New York and Senior Scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-economic Inequality. Milanovic’s main area of work is income inequality, in individual countries and globally, including in pre-industrial societies. His most recent book, Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (2016), addresses economic and political issues of globalization. It was translated in sixteen languages and awarded the 2017 Bruno Kreisky Prize and 2018 Hans Matthöfer Prize. He is currently working on a new book entitled Capitalism, alone. |
 Matti Apunen | Matti Apunen is Director at Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, a pro-market think tank. Mr. Apunen graduated from University of Tampere Department of Journalism and served as a reporter, desk editor and editor-in-chief (2000-2010) at Aamulehti, Finland’s second-biggest daily newspaper. He is a regular political commentator and columnist in the media. |
 Patrick Dümmler | Dr. Patrick Dümmler is Senior Fellow and Head of Research “Open Switzerland” at Avenir Suisse. He is responsible for topics such as free trade, farming and energy. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics of the University of Zurich, holds a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich and published several textbooks. After more than ten years as strategy advisor and as head of an association, which promotes medical technology exports, he joined Avenir Suisse in November 2015. |
 Anastassios Frangulidis | Anastassios Frangulidis joined Pictet Asset Management in October 2016 as Head of Swiss Balanced investments in Zurich. Prior to joining Pictet, Anastassios- in his capacity as Chief Economist and Chief Strategist- led the Multi Asset Research Unit (formed in 2010) at Zürcher Kantonalbank. He joined the bank in 1999 and was appointed Chief Economist International in 2002. He started his career in 1997 at UBS within portfolio management. Anastassios holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Zurich and is a Board member of the “Clara Millenet-Schild Foundation” in the framework of the "Swiss Multiple Sclerosis Society“. |
 Peter Grünenfelder | Dr. Peter Grünenfelder is the Director of Avenir Suisse. Previous positions were, inter alia, state chancellor of the Canton of Aargau and president of the Swiss State Chancellors’ Association. Furthermore, he is a lecturer for public governance at the University of St. Gallen as well as frequent visiting lecturer at universities in Switzerland and abroad. |
 Ilkka Haavisto | Ilkka Haavisto is Head of Research at Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA. He has written on a wide range of economic and social issues and is an expert on Finns’ values and attitudes. Before joining EVA he did research on ethics and economics. He is a member of the board in several Finnish voluntary associations and foundations. Ilkka has a degree in economics and philosophy. |
 Susan Harkness | Susan Harkness is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Centre for Poverty and Social Justice in the School for Policy Studies. Her research focusses on how gender and family structure relate to inequality and poverty. She is currently Principal Investigator on a cross-country comparative project, funded by the NORFACE Dynamics of Inequality program, on how inequalities evolve over the life course together with colleagues in Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany. Other current funded projects include research for the Low Pay Commission on the minimum wage and earnings progression, and for the Government Equalities Office on occupational downgrading following childbirth. Previous research has been funded by the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, OECD and Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She is a visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and the topic champion for social policy at Understanding Society. She was previously Associate Director for Policy, Understanding Society and Professor of Public Policy at ISER, University of Essex and has held positions at the Universities of Bath, Sussex and the London School of Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics from UCL, a MA in Development Economics from Sussex University, and BA in Economics from Cambridge University. |
 Nils Karlson | Nils Karlson is the founding president and CEO of the Ratio research institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is an economist and political scientist, Professor in Political Science at Linköping University, working in the fields of institutional economics, political theory, public choice, and constitutional political economy. His research is focused on the interaction between politics, markets and civil society in Western democracies and welfare states. His most recent book in English is Statecraft and Liberal Reform in Advanced Democracies (Palgrave McMillan 2018), see http://ratio.se/nilskarlson/statecraft-liberal-reform-advanced-democracies/ Currently he is working on a book about the future of the European Union. |
 Ursina Kuhn | Ursina Kuhn is a senior researcher at the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences, FORS in Lausanne. Since 2006, she works for the Swiss Household Panel where she is responsible for income variables and tax simulation. She is a co-investigator for the project “Wealth distribution in Switzerland and Germany: Evidence from Survey Data” financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the German Research Foundation. She studied political science and economics at the university of Zurich, from where she also holds a PhD. Her research interests involve wealth inequality, the impact of gender roles on economic inequalities, voting behaviour, methods of longitudinal data analysis and quality of survey data. |
 Jennifer Langenegger | Jennifer Langenegger joined Avenir Suisse in February 2017 as Researcher. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Bern and a Master’s Degree in Economics at the University of Zurich. Previously, she worked, inter alia, at PPCmetrics, Credit Suisse, Allianz SE as well as a research assistant at the ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. |
 Hanno Lorenz | Since 2013, Hanno Lorenz is Project Manager at Agenda Austria covering the expertise of international trade, income and wealth distribution as well as digitalization. Prior stations were the Cognion Research Group and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. He studied Economics at the University of Vienna and is a doctoral candidate at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. |
 Isabel Z. Martínez | Isabel Z. Martínez is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of St. Gallen, where she obtained her PhD in 2016. She studied in Bern and Berlin and spent 3 semesters at UC Berkeley during her PhD. Her research focuses on income and wealth inequality and responses to taxation. Besides her academic work, she holds a part-time position as economist at the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions and she is a member of the Swiss Competition Commission. |
 Judith Niehues | Judith Niehues, born 1982 in Münster, is Head of the Research Group Microdata and Method Development at the German Economic Institute (IW) in Cologne, Germany. From 2002 until 2007 she studied economics at the University of Cologne and at the San Diego State University. In December 2011, she received her PhD for her thesis on Income Inequality, Inequality of Opportunity and Redistribution from the University of Cologne. Her main research interests include the empirical analysis of income and wealth inequality as well as subjective assessments of inequality. |
 Miguel Otero-Iglesias | Miguel Otero-Iglesias is Senior Analyst in International Political Economy at Elcano Royal Institute and Professor of Practice at the IE School of Global and Public Affairs. In addition, he is Senior Research Fellow at the EU-Asia Institute at ESSCA School of Management. His main areas of expertise are: international and European monetary affairs, global economic governance, the power triangle between the US, the EU and China and theories of money. |
 Daniel Pryor | Daniel Pryor is Head of Programmes at the Adam Smith Institute. He is responsible for organizing the ASI’s events, running the Institute's education programmes, and managing donor relations. His research interests include immigration, drug law reform, sex policy, and lifestyle freedom. He graduated from Durham University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. In his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, motorsports, gaming, hiking, and saving the reputation of his home county — Essex. |
 Natanael Rother | Natanael Rother is Fellow at Avenir Suisse. Previous stations were, inter alia, a major bank and cantonal administrations of Lucerne and Zug. The former sportsman is member of the advisory board of CH2048 and was from 2015 until 2017 board member of Operation Libero. He studied Political Economics with a focus on Public Finances at the University of Lucerne. |
 Florian Scheuer | Florian Scheuer is Professor of Economics of Institutions at the University of Zurich, endowed by the UBS International Center of Economics in Society. He was previously Assistant Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Visiting Professor at Harvard University and UC Berkeley, and a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His research connects the fields of public finance, economic theory, macroeconomics and political economy. In particular, he has studied how rising inequality affects various aspects of optimal tax policy and vice versa. |
 Lukas A. Schmid | Lukas A. Schmid is a research assistant and a PhD student at the University of Lucerne. His research focuses on fiscal federalism and policy with particular consideration of Switzerland. He previously worked for Swiss Federal Railways SBB as a pricing manager. He holds a M.A. in economics from the University of St. Gallen. |
 Christian Frey | Christian Frey is a research assistant and a PhD candidate at the University of Lucerne and project manager finances and taxes at economiesuisse. In his PhD thesis he empirically examines the impact of tax policy and institutional factors on the income distribution in Swiss cantons. He holds a M.A. in economics from the University of Zurich. |
 Salomè Vogt | Salomè Vogt is Head of Avenir Jeunesse and works since 2015 at Avenir Suisse. Prior to this, she worked for Travelhouse as well as Almog GmbH. Furthermore, she worked as a volunteer at the Switzerland Youth Red Cross. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Law and Gender Studies from the University of Zurich. |
Tuesday, 22nd January
 Martina Guggisberg | Martina Guggisberg has been a Research Associate at the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO) since 2010. She is working in the FSO’s Social Analysis Section where she conducts analyses on income, inequality and poverty. She holds a Master’s Degree in sociology from the University of Bern. |
 Irene Carbone | Irene Carbone is a statistician and data analyst for the Household Budget Survey at the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland, with a focus on cross-border shopping, e-commerce and statistics theory. Previously, she worked on trade in services and e-commerce at the International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations. She studied quantitative economics at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy and development economics at University of Essex, UK and holds a MSc in Economics with a Major in Econometrics from the University of Geneva |
 Tibère Adler | Tibère Adler is the Adjunct Legal Fellow. His focus is on direct democracy, media as well as Switzerland`s international relations. He was previously Managing Director of the Edipresse International Media Group and is on board of directors of numerous Swiss companies. He is also co-founder of the Swiss Board Institute. |
 Martin Ågerup | Martin Ågerup is president of CEPOS, a Danish think tank, which he co-founded in 2004. He has a B.Sc. in Economics and Economic History from the University of Bristol, UK, and an MA in Economics from the University of Exeter, UK. He is chairman of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. He has written four books and appears regularly in both print and electronic media. |
 Ulf Berg | Dr Ulf Berg (1950, Swiss citizen, M.Sc. and PhD in mechanical engineering) has been non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors since August 2007. He worked for ABB (formerly BBC) in various managerial positions in Switzerland and abroad for more than 20 years until 1998. From 1999 to 2001, Dr Ulf Berg was COO/CEO of Carlo Gavazzi Holding AG. From 2003 to 2004, he was CEO of SIG Beverages Int. AG before moving to Sulzer AG as CEO in 2004. From 2007 to 2009, he was non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sulzer AG, Switzerland. Dr Ulf Berg was a member of the Management Board Committee of Swissmem from 2004 to 2015 and 2006 to 2017 he was a member of the Board of Directors of Bobst SA, Switzerland. From 2012 to 2016 he was a member of the advisory board of Synagro Ltd., Baltimore, USA. Since 2012, Dr Ulf Berg has been a member of the Board of Greater Zurich Area AG, Switzerland, and of Am-Tec AG, Zurich. Since 2016 he has been a member of the advisory board of G+E Getec Holding GmbH, Magdeburg, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuoni Reisen Holding AG, Zurich. He is partner of BLR Partners Ltd. in Thalwil, Zurich, and member of the Board of Directors of various BLR and AM-Tec portfolio firms. |
 Daniele Checchi | Daniele Checchi is an economist. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Milan in Italy, currently on leave from university duties, working at Italian National agency for the Evaluation of the University system. He holds a MA in Economic and Social Disciplines at Bocconi University (Milan), a M.Sc. degree in Economics at London School of Economics (London, UK) and a PhD in Economics awarded by University of Siena. He also worked, among other duties, as consultant for the European Commission coordinating the Milan unit under the GINI project “Growing inequalities’ impacts” and was member, over the last five years, of several national committees appointed by the Italian Ministry of Labour. As Director of the Luxembourg Office of LIS, he oversees all aspects of LIS’ work, including its administrative, management, development, and data production functions. His research interests, published in journals like Economic Policy, Journal of Public Economics, European Sociological Review etc., span from inequalities in educational attainments to educational policies, from wage inequalities to the role of labour market institutions in shaping inequalities of opportunities. |
 Julie Falcon | Julie Falcon is an associated researcher at the University of Lausanne. She currently works for the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland and for the Institute for Adult Learning in Singapore. She has previously been a SNSF postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, Stanford University, USA, and at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Germany. She received her PhD in social sciences at the University of Lausanne on the evolution of intergenerational social mobility in 20th-century Switzerland. Her research embraces social stratification and mobility, educational inequality, returns to education and quantitative methodology. |
 Stefan Heumann | Stefan Heumann is member of the management board of Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV). Prior to joining the board, he initiated and built the European Digital Agenda program together with Ben Scott and directed it until March 2016, laying the foundation for the further strategic development of the SNV into a think tank working at the intersection of technology and society. He has worked and published on a wide range of issues at the intersection of technology and public policy. Currently, his work focuses on government strategies and policies addressing the economic, social, and political implications of Artificial Intelligence. His opinion pieces and commentary have appeared in German and international media outlets such as New York Times, Financial Times, Politico, The Economist, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Spiegel Online. He frequently speaks and moderates at German and international conferences and workshops. |
 Markus Jäntti | Markus Jäntti is Professor of Economics at and current Director of the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI) at Stockholm University. He was previously Professor of Economics at the University of Helsinki and the VATT institute for Economic Research, Abo Akademi University. the University of Tampere, as well as Visiting Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan, Scientific Director at Statistics Finland, and Research Director at the Luxembourg Income Study. His research addresses economic inequality, poverty, and income mobility, often in comparative perspective. His recent research publications include “Labour income, social transfers and child poverty” in Social Indicators Research, “Trends in life expectancy by income and the role of specific causes of death” in Economica and “The contribution of early-life vs. labour-market factors to intergenerational income persistence: a comparison of the UK and Sweden” in the Economic Journal. |
 Samuel Rutz | Dr. Samuel Rutz is Adjunct Fellow and focuses mainly on privatization as well as competition policy and regulation. After his studies in economics at the University of Zurich he worked for a few years as research assistant at the Institute for Economic Research of ETH and at the Competition Commission. There, he was chief economist and member of the extended management. |
 Tobias Schlegel | Tobias Schlegel is a PhD student at the «Swiss Leading House on Economics of Education, Firm Behaviour and Training Policies». In his first project he is analyzing channels for heterogeneous innovation spillovers in Swiss regions after the establishment of universities of applied sciences. Before starting his PhD in 2017, he worked as a Junior Fellow at the economic think tank Avenir Suisse in Zurich (since 2015) and as an intern at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs in Bern (2014). |
 Christoph Schmocker | Christoph Schmocker, General Manager of the Julius Baer Foundation, joined the company in October 2016. He spent the previous six years in South Africa working for the University of Cape Town (UCT) as the Director of Fundraising and Strategic Projects. Previously he worked for 10 years as CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation where he developed the focus of the UBS philanthropy strategy. As a philanthropic advisor he has served as the Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Roger Federer Foundation since 2007 and develops strategies for multiple grant foundations. He is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and loves Africa. |
 Lars Tvede | Lars Tvede is a Danish citizen who has lived in Switzerland for several decades now. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in International Commerce, and he is also a certified derivatives trader from National Futures Association in Chicago. His 15 books have been published in 11 languages and more than 50 editions. He spent 11 years in portfolio management and investment banking before moving to the high-tech and telecommunications industries in the mid-1990s, where he was a co-founder of several technology companies, which have won various international awards, including the Red Herring Global 100 Award, the Bully Award and the Wall Street Europe Innovation Award. He is also founder of Beluga, a successful financial trading company, advisor to a Swiss hedge fund and strategic partner in the Nordic-American venture capital fund Nordic Eye. He has been listed in The Guru Guide to Marketing as one of the Worlds 62 leading thinkers of marketing strategy and has appeared on media hundreds of times, including as guest host on CNBC and TEDTalks speaker. |
 Louise van Rhyn | Dr Louise van Rhyn is a social entrepreneur. She believes the worlds' huge intractable problems can be solved through cross-sector collaboration and a solid understanding of complex social change. Her approach to change is shaped by 20 years of working as an organisational change practitioner. She holds a doctorate in Complex Social Change and has founded a few entrepreneurial organisations. In 2010 she founded Partners for Possibility, an innovative and award-winning social change process where business leaders and school principals work together across traditional boundaries to improve schools. |
 Stina Vrang Elias | Stina Vrang Elias has been the managing director of the independent think tank DEA, the leading Danish Think Tank focusing on education, since 2006. Among other current activities, Stina is chair at the National Council of Vocational Education, member of the Prime Minister’s Disruption Council and Norway’s National Body on Quality in Education. The Think Tank DEA’s main focus is to strengthen public and private value creation and growth by enhancing the knowledge and evidence base with the objective to design and prioritize policy within the areas early childhood education and care, education, research, innovation and labour market. In order to do so, DEA conducts evidence based analyses, projects and participates in the public debate to qualify the outlook for decision-makers and practitioners. Stina holds a Master of Science in Public Administration from Roskilde University, Denmark, with additional education from UC Davis, USA, and Uppsala University, Sweden. |
