Ms Santos is Deputy Director General at BusinessEurope, responsible for international relations and Chair of BusinessEurope’s EU-UK Task Force. She is also the EU private sector representative in the G20 Empower group.

She was a member of the TTIP Advisory Group and of the Expert Group on EU trade agreements of the European Commission. Her principal experience is in trade and the textiles sector, having acted first as the chief representative for the Portuguese textile industry in Brussels, later as Trade and Industry Manager for Euratex-the European Apparel and Textile Confederation. She was also the manager responsible for international partnerships –including a joint venture in India –for a leading Portuguese textile company. Her academic background is law and management.

Ambassador Kurt Volker is a leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with over 35 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities. A former career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, he worked in official capacities for over 25 years under six presidential administrations.

He was the US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations from 2017-2019, and US Ambassador to NATO in 2008-2009. Ambassador Volker is the Founder and President of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). He previously served as a Director of CG Funds Trust and the Wall Street Fund.

Since 2020, he has been serving as a board member at BGS Rails, a Ukrainian wagon operation and rental company with a fleet of 3000 wagons, and as an advisor to the board at Avia Solutions Group, leaders in end-to-end capacity solutions for passenger and cargo airlines worldwide, among his many other professional endeavors.

From 2012-2019, Ambassador Volker was the founding Executive Director of The McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University based in Washington, DC. He remains a Senior Advisor at the Atlantic Council; a Trustee of the American College of the Mediterranean in Aix-en-Provence, France; a Trustee of the Hungary Initiatives Foundation; a member of the GLOBSEC International Advisory Board; and a member of the International Advisory Board of the U.S. Institute for Peace. He has taught Transatlantic Relations at Arizona State University as well as The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, where he is also a member of that School’s Board of Advisors.

Ambassador Volker has a B.A. from Temple University and an M.A. in International Relations from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He has studied in Sweden and France and speaks Hungarian, Swedish and French.

First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine

Svyrydenko Yulia was born in 1985.

She graduated with honors from Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics and received a master’s degree in Antitrust Field Management.

2008 – began her career in the private sector. Since 2015, she has held senior positions in Chernihiv Regional State Administration: headed the Department of Economic Development, held the position of First Deputy Head of Chernihiv Regional State Administration, and from July to December 2018 served as Head of Regional State Administration.

September 2019 – was appointed Deputy Minister, and from July 2020 – First Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine.

By the Decree of the President of Ukraine on December 22, 2020, she was appointed Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.

On November 4, 2021, she was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

She was awarded the Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Hanni Rosenbaum is the Executive Director of Business at OECD (BIAC). In this role, she leads business diplomacy efforts with the OECD and its members, guides the strategy and policy engagement of Paris-based office, and ensures that the views of member organizations are adequately reflected in communications with the OECD and key stakeholders.  

She previously worked at the Nürburgring/Circuits International in Germany, the European Parliament in Brussels, and the Brussels-based global recycling industry association, BIR. She holds advanced degrees in French and English, in applied economic sciences from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Brussels and in international relations from the Centre for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies in Paris 

She joined Business at OECD in 1997 and held positions of increasing responsibility. She is fully fluent in English, French and German, and speaks Russian. She also has a black belt in karate and is involved in community projects teaching French to foreigners. 

Aušrinė Armonaitė is the Minister of the Economy and Innovation of Lithuania and a Parliament Member representing Lithuania‘s diaspora. Mrs. Armonaitė is also the founder and the chair of the liberal political party “Laisvės partija” (Freedom Party), which is part of the current coalition government in Lithuania. Freedom Party is the first proLGBTQ+ party in Lithuania to take serious action toward legalizing same-sex marriage and solving other critical human rights issues.

Mrs. Armonaitė is the youngest leader of political parties in Lithuania. She started her political career as a member of the Vilnius City Council in 2015. She has been a member of the Lithuanian parliament since 2016.

Bertil Egger Beck works as Senior European Affairs Adviser at DI -Confederation of Danish Industry’s office in Brussels. He is responsible for DI’s cooperation with counterparts and lobbying activities towards the EU institutions in the fields of international trade, EU-UK relations, development, CSR, The Arctic, economic policies, EU budget and recovery plan. As a part of the job, he represents DI in various working groups and committees of BusinessEurope, European Services Forum, DigitalEurope and Orgalim. He is also DI’s Leading Policy Coordinator at Business at OECD (BIAC) where he is coordinating DI’s activities in BIAC’s policy groups.

Before moving to Brussels, Bertil worked as Trade Policy Adviser in DI’s Global Trade and Investment Unit in Copenhagen. In this function, he represented DI’s trade policy interests in Business Europe’s working groups, European Services Forum’s Policy Committee and BIAC’s Trade Committee. He also carried out lobbying activities towards the EU and the WTO. Moreover, Bertil has work experience from the Danish Parliament and the Danish Ministry of Transport.

Bertil holds a MSc in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen. During his studies he did an exchange programme at Boston College. The focus of his studies was international relations, international political economy, and multilateral institutions.

David M. Schjerlund currently serves as Global Director at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for Export, Innovation and Government & Public Affairs – a position he has held since August 2022. Prior to this appointment, David M. Schjerlund was Director of the Export department and the Royal Danish Embassy of France. With a Master of Political Science from 2008, David started his diplomatic career in 2008 with postings in La Paz, Bolivia, Estonia and Paris. David M. Schjerlund speaks 5 languages including Danish, English, French, Spanish and conversational German.

Romualda Stragienė is the head of the Innovation Agency Lithuania, which provides business start-up and development consultations, international business development opportunities, grows business competencies, provides access to financing and networking resources, and connects co-founders of business services. Romualda is also active in business life: she is a board member of the associations “Lyderė” and “Likochema”, a partnership associate professor at Vilnius University Business School, a mentor of young talents, and an experienced speaker.

Before taking office as Chairman of the Board of Metalistas Group, UAB in 2018, M. Gudas was a longtime CEO of Metalistas LT, UAB (2006–2018). On his career path, M. Gudas also served as Chairman of the Board of Tetas, UAB, Export Manager of Putokšnis, UAB in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as from 2001 to 2011 he taught at Šiauliai University, the Department of Economics, where he himself received bachelor’s (2001) and master’s (2003) degrees in Economics.

He also studied at the University of Fribourg (2002), the Swiss Banking Institute of the University of Zurich (2002-2003), the Baltic Management Institute (BMI) (2011-2013), the Baltic Institute for Corporate Governance (BICG) (2016, 2019).

During his studies, M. Gudas joined AIESEC, was its vice-president, and later continued his social activities by engaging in Šiauliai Vykintas Rotary and Vilnius Perkūnas Rotary clubs, in which he served as president and currently serves as a member of the Board. Also, M. Gudas is the President of the Panevėžys Region Industrialists’ Association (since 2016), a member of the Presidium of the Lithuanian Engineering Industry Association LINPRA (since 2018) and vice-president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (since 2020).

Since 2005, Andrius Pranckevičius has been active in the largest group of agricultural and food production enterprises in the Baltic region, AB Linas Agro Group, and since 2009 he has been Deputy Chairman of the Board and Deputy CEO.

In 2021, Pranckevičius became CEO of Kauno grūdai AB.

Pranckevičius received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in marketing management from Kaunas University of Technology. He is also Alumni (Leadership Science Program) at Harvard Business School.