At the 2023 forum we discussED the conditions, experiences and outcomes for Sustainable Wellbeing Economy.
Conditions like:
Governments, Budget, Institutions, Businesses and Sustainability,
Experiences like:
Trust, Fairness, Mattering and Inclusion.
Outcomes like:
Health, Welfare, Measurements and Wellbeing
The host of 2023
Katrin Jakobsdottir
Prime minister of Iceland
the SPEAKERS
Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Katrín Jakobsdóttir is the Prime Minister of Iceland and the Leader of the Left-Green Movement. She joined the Left-Green Movement in 2002 and has been a member of the Icelandic parliament, Alþingi, for the Reykjavík North Constituency since 2007. She has been the leader of the Left-Green Movement since 2013, having served as the deputy leader from 2003. Katrín was Minister of Education, Science and Culture, as well as Minister for Nordic Cooperation, in the left-wing government of 2009–2013. Katrín is Iceland’s second female Prime Minister and is the first elected head of state who comes from a new breed of Nordic left-wing parties that link democratic socialism, environmentalism, feminism and anti-militarism.
Katrín governs in a coalition with the conservative Independence Party and the centrist Progressive Party.
Willum þór þórsson
Willum Þór Þórsson is the Minister of Health in Iceland. Willum took office as Minister of Health in November 2021 and has served as a member of Althingi for the Southwest Constituency since 2013 for the Progressive Party.
Prior to his appointment as Minister of Health, Þórsson served as chair of the Budget Committee from 2017 – 2021 and as Deputy Speaker of Althingi 2019–2021.
In his current role, Þórsson has been instrumental in implementing policies aimed at improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare in Iceland with increased focus on both public and mental health.
Bjarni benediktson
Bjarni Benediktsson,
Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs took office as minister of finance and economic affairs in 2017.
Member of the Icelandic parliament Althingi for Southwest Iceland since 2003, Bjarni Benediktsson has been leader of the Independence party since 2009. He was minister of finance and economic affairs from April 2013 to January 2017 when he became prime minister.
neil gray
Neil Gray was born and brought up in Orkney and was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School. He graduated from the University of Stirling in 2008 with a first-class Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in politics and journalism.
He was elected to represent Airdrie and Shotts Constituency at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
He had previously won the Airdrie and Shotts Westminster seat in 2015 and held it on two subsequent occasions before resigning to stand for the same area in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. Prior to becoming an MP, Mr Gray worked for former Scottish Government Health Secretary Alex Neil MSP as his Airdrie and Shotts constituency office manager.
Neil Gray was appointed Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development in January 2022. In March 2022 he additionally became Minister with special responsibility for Refugees from Ukraine.
Paulette Lenert
Paulette Lenert is Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Minister for Consumer Protection and Minister Delegate for Social Security in Luxembourg.
Following the legislative elections in 2018, Paulette Lenert joined the government as Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action and Minister for Consumer Protection. In February 2020, Paulette Lenert was appointed Minister of Health as well as Minister Delegate for Social Security. Additionally, as a result of a cabinet reshuffle in January 2022, Paulette Lenert was nominated Deputy Prime Minister.
In her position as Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert believes in equitable access to healthcare for all and opposes the privatisation of the healthcare system.
hans kluge
Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge of Belgium embarked on his role as WHO Regional Director for Europe on February 1, 2020, shortly before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Since then, he and his team have led WHO’s response to this health emergency across 53 countries encompassing Europe and Central Asia. Lessons learnt from the crisis, along with other key health priorities, are encapsulated in the WHO European Programme of Work, which reflects a dual track approach to health: Preparing better for mounting health emergencies even as countries strengthen essential health systems and services including for non-communicable diseases. In his current role, Dr Kluge advocates all the more strongly with governments and funders for health systems strengthening, prioritizing primary health care as a cornerstone of public health. “For me, universal health coverage is more than a slogan,” he says. “Strategic, practical investments, grounded in human rights and propelled by political will, can transform societies and countries – accelerating the achievement of health for all.”
Richard Layard
Richard Layard is the founder-Director of the Centre for Economic Performance - a leading inter-disciplinary research centre at the London School of Economics. He is currently co-Director of their Community Wellbeing programme.
Richard is an economist who thinks there is more to happiness than just the economy. In 2005 he wrote the best-selling book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, translated into 20 languages.
He has had huge influence on making psychological therapy more widely available in Britain’s National Health Service, and in 2014 co-authored Thrive on how we can secure a better deal for mental health. In 2018 he co-authored The Origins of Happiness – an analysis of what determines our happiness, based on a range of longitudinal datasets.
Richard’s latest book Can we be happier? The evidence and ethics for better lives explores how teachers, managers, health professionals, couples, community leaders, economists, scientists, politicians, and we as individuals can create a happier world.
Kate Pickett
Kate Pickett is Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity at University of York (UK). Kate is also a Director of Health Equity North. She is co-founder and Patron of The Equality Trust.
Richard Wilkinson
Richard Wilkinson is Emeritus Professor of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School, Honorary Professor at University College London, and Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of York. Richard has played a formative role in drawing attention to social class differences in health, and the health and social effects of income inequality. He was one of the founders, and is now a Patron of The Equality Trust.
Alma Dagbjört Möller
Alma is a medical doctor, with a specialist degree and a PhD in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. She also has a specialist degree in health care administration and a masters degree in public health and administration. Further, she has a diploma degree in public administration.
Alma has been clinically active until she took on the current office as the Director of Health in 2018, the first woman to serve since the office was established in year 1760. She has previously worked at the University Hospital in Lund Sweden and as a chief and senior executive of both Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavík.
Having worked with intensive care patients during her professional life, Alma emphasizes the importance of promoting public health in meeting the challenges facing health and health care services.
Dóra Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir
Dóra Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir is Director of Public Health at the Directorate of Health in Iceland. She is a licenced psychologist and holds a PhD in public health. Dora is affiliated with the Wellbeing Institute at Cambridge University, her research interest focus on the epidemiology of wellbeing and finding reliable measures to evaluate the wellbeing of a population. Dora´s passion lies in finding effective ways for individuals, institutions and societies to flourish. She has served as a governmental expert on mental health for the EU and on Wellbeing Economy (WBE) for WHO. She leads a task on WBE in an EU joint action. Dora and her team, lead the work on health promoting communities – wellbeing for all, which collaborates with the PM´s office on UN´s SDG and WBE. She co-authored the book “Creating The World We Want To Live In – How Positive Psychology Can Build a Brighter Future”. She is Director of Graduate Diploma programme on Positive Psychology at the University of Iceland. Dora has been an invited speaker at numerous international conferences.
Heiða Björg Hilmisdóttir
Heiða Björg Hilmisdóttir is an Icelandic politician. Heiða was the vice chairman of the Social Democratic Alliance from 2017 to 2022 and the chairman of the Women's Movement in Social Democratic Alliance from 2013 to 2015. She took a seat on the Reykjavík City Council in 2015 where she has been in the executive board for the city. She was elected chairman of the Reykjavík Welfare Council in 2019. She is the president for the Icelandic Association of Local Authorities and has a seat in the policy committee in the Council of European Municipalities and regions.
Ilona Boniwell
Ilona Boniwell is a professor of positive psychology at the University of East London and the original founder of the UEL’s MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, the first ever degree of this type in Europe. She is one of the world leaders in positive psychology, working in the field for over 20 years. Professor Boniwell wrote or edited twelve books, delivered over 200 keynotes and a TEDx, founded the European Network of Positive Psychology, organised the first European Congress of Positive Psychology and was the first vice-chair of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). She is also a passionate practitioner of positive psychology. As a CEO of Positran she consulted the Governments of UAE and Bhutan and many major international companies, including ClubMed, L’Oréal, Unilever, Nestle, EY, Microsoft and BNP Paribas.
Vanessa king
Vanessa is a leading expert in applying positive psychology to pro-actively build psychological wellbeing and resilience. She studied under Professor Martin Seligman at University of Pennsylvania and is Head of Psychology and Workplaces and a Board member at social movement Action for Happiness. She is the architect of its evidence-based framework for action, ‘10 Keys for Happier Living’, which has engaged and inspired action in millions of people around the world including in workplaces, school curricula, design schools, healthcare settings and Mental Health First Aid resources and is a foundation for Action for Happiness’ community-based courses.
Vanessa has worked with many organisations around the world on how psychological principles can shape how people collaborate, lead and manage others. Her clients have included: BT Plc, Microsoft, John Lewis Partnership, The National College of Policing, SCOR, UKRI, Hermes Investment Management amongst many others. Vanessa is author and co-author of four books including Creating the World We Want to Live In – How Positive Psychology Can Help Create a Brighter Future, (March 2021, Routledge). She and her work have been quoted and featured widely in the media and she lectures and regularly speaks internationally.
Chris Brown
Chris Brown is Head of the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development in Venice, Italy. She leads a multidisciplinary team supporting European health networks, national authorities and partners to implement social, economic, gender and rights- based policies for health and health equity.
Chris manages the WHO European Regional Health Equity Status Initiative which provides policy makers with innovative and adaptable solutions to invest for health and leave no one behind. In the context of European recovery and resilience priorities, she is leading the WHO/Europe Universal Wellbeing Economy Initiative which is generating practical know how and alliances across sectors to ensure a culture of health for all in recovery and development plans.
Chris is one of the RWJ Foundation Global Leaders in Health Equity and a visiting Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in the United Kingdom. In her previous life Chris has worked for more than 10 years for the Danish Development Agency on large scale projects in the areas of health and sustainable livelihoods. And prior to this worked as a public health expert in UNK, in service commissioning and provider roles for regional and national health authorities. Chris is married, likes to paint and lives in Italy.
Þorsteinn Kári Jónsson
Þorsteinn Kári Jónsson is an experienced Director of Sustainability and Community Engagement at Marel, global capital goods company focusing on high tech solutions for the food processing industry. With expertise in sustainability strategy, ESG reporting, HSE, DEI and community engagement, he drives impactful initiatives. As a chair of the Champions group of the Nordic CEO’s of a Sustainable Future he has been heavily involved in coordinating the groups activities over the past few years, focusing on getting the public and private sectors in the Nordics to collaborate towards sustainable development.
Þorsteinn’s educational background includes an MSc in Strategy, Organization, and Leadership, complemented by a BSc in Business Administration and Philosophy. His passion for sustainability and corporate responsibility is evident through his diverse roles and commitment to making a positive impact as board member of numerous sustainability related initiatives and academic roles focusing on teaching sustainability strategies.
Margreet Frieling
As a sociologist, Margreet has worked in public policy for 15 years, focusing on the measurement of societal wellbeing as well as tools to better incorporate wellbeing evidence into policy design, including through wellbeing budgeting. Originally from the Netherlands, she lived in New Zealand for 10 years, before settling in France with her partner and their two sons. Prior to working for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, she worked and consulted for the OECD, the New Zealand Ministries for the Environment, Social Development, Education, and Finance, and Statistics New Zealand. Alongside her work as a policy analyst, she has facilitated online courses on Evidence in Public Policy for the Universities of Oxford and the United Nations, working with policy professionals from around the world.
Gary Gillespie
Gary was appointed Director and Scottish Government Chief Economic Adviser in 2011. He joined the civil service in 2000 from the Fraser of Allander Institute (University of Strathclyde) where his research interests included Scottish economy, regional economic modelling and foreign direct investment.
He provides economic advice to the First Minister and Ministers across a range of strategic economic issues. He publishes regular assessments of the State of the Economy and analysis of key impacts (EU Exit, Covid, Supply chain disruption, inflation etc.) on changes in the Scottish and UK economies. He is a regular participant in economic discussion across Scotland, UK and internationally. He leads engagement on the Wellbeing Economy Government (WEGo) network which was instigated in 2018 and seeks to share best practise in delivering international change.
He was made an Honorary Professor at Glasgow Caledonian University in January 2011 and was appointed to the role of Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde in 2015. He was also appointed a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2017.
Georgina Sturge
Georgina Sturge is a statistician at the House of Commons Library, which is the research service to the UK Parliament. She is part of a team that advises Members of Parliament from all parties on the use of statistics, and which carries out research for them in preparation for debates and other Parliamentary work. Her recent book, Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers (2022), shows where governments past and recent have come unstuck because they relied on flawed numerical data. She writes about how we can take a more critical approach to using numbers in an age in which data plays an increasingly powerful role. Georgina studied at the University of Oxford, the United Nations University and the University of Maastricht and is an expert adviser to the UK’s Office for National Statistics.
Heikki Hiilamo
PhD Heikki Hiilamo works as a research professor at National Institute for Health and Welfare and as a professor of social policy at University of Helsinki. Previously Hiilamo has worked as research professor at Social Insurance Institution on Finland. He has worked as visiting professor at University of California San Francisco and VID Specialized University Oslo. Hiilamo has the title of Docent from University of Tampere and University of Eastern Finland. Hiilamo’s research interests include wll-being economy, family policy, poverty, inequality, welfare state research and tobacco control. He is specialized in quantitative methods. His articles have appeared in leading international journals including Journal of Social Policy, Journal of European Social Policy, International Journal of Epidemiology, American Journal of Public Health and Social Science and Medicine.
Meik Wiking
Meik Wiking is the founder and CEO of The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. He is a research associate for the World Database of Happiness, member of the Advisory committee to the Global Happiness Policy Report and Founder of The Happiness Museum in Copenhagen. In addition, he is a New York Times best-selling author and has been translated into 38 languages – and has been called the happiest man in the world by The Times.
Eggert Benedikt Guðmundsson
Eggert Benedikt Guðmundsson holds a master´s degree in electrical engineering and MBA. He has served as the CEO of some of Iceland´s largest companies and sat on boards of companies and associations. Earlier, he worked in marketing and business development for Philips Electronics in Belgium and USA. He has been active in the fishing industry, metal processing industry, high-tech, domestic services, tourism and cultural organizations. He is currently the leader for sustainable development in the Prime Minister’s Office of Iceland.
Carrie Exton
Carrie Exton is the Acting Senior Counsellor and Deputy Director at the OECD WISE Centre (for Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity). WISE works to develop the evidence base for more people-centred and planet-positive policy solutions. The Centre tackles a diverse array of topics from inequalities of opportunity and social mobility, to sustainable development, loneliness, mental health, child well-being, and how societal changes and challenges shape people’s material conditions, environments, quality of life and relational well-being.
Carrie is the overall editor for the How’s Life? series of reports, which provide an in-depth assessment of trends in well-being, inclusion and sustainability across OECD and partner countries. She is currently supervising research to monitor how the COVID-19 pandemic and rising living costs have affected people’s well-being; the economic, social, environmental and relational drivers of mental health inequalities - and integrated policy approaches for tackling them; how the built environment shapes people’s well-being; social connections data and its role in policy-making; new frontiers of subjective well-being measurement; and supporting governments in putting well-being metrics into policy action.
Previously based in the OECD Statistics and Data Directorate, Carrie has more than a decade of experience in developing and analysing WISE evidence. Prior to joining the OECD, Carrie worked as a policy advisor in the UK Civil Service, including roles in strategy, private office, higher education, research and science policy, and the Apprenticeships Unit. She holds a DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University.
inga huld ármann
Inga Huld is Iceland’s Youth Delegate for children and youth at the United Nations. She holds a Bsc in Applied Mathematics from the University of Iceland and is starting masters studies in Statistics at Imperial College London next autumn. Currently she is working at the Ministry of Education and Children.
Additionally Inga is an active member in the Icelandic Youth Environmentalist Organisation and one this year's organisers of the Reykjavík Slut Walk. Previously she sat in the Student Council of the University of Iceland, as the President of the council's Academic Affairs Committee and before that as the Chairman of the Youth Council of the Icelandic Ombudsman for Children.
Through her activism career she has focused on the rights of children and youth, especially the right to be heard and also equality, quality education for all and climate matters.
Íris Sævarsdóttir
Íris Sævarsdóttir is a 16 year old from Iceland who is a member in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals youth council in Iceland. She has been an active participant in youth councils and other events related to children’s matters and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Hafdís Hanna Ægisdóttir
Hafdís Hanna Ægisdóttir is the Director of the Sustainability Institute of the University of Iceland. Prior to her current role, she served for over a decade as the Director of the UN University Land Restoration Training Programme, which is now part of GRÓ – a center for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change, under the auspices of UNESCO. Hafdís Hanna also chairs an Expert Committee on nature and cultural historical relics for the Icelandic Master Plan for Nature Protetion and Energy Utilization, and is a member of the Icelandic Climate Council. She holds a PhD in Plant Ecology and is a certified coach and alumna of Homeward Bound, a global leadership programme for women, where she also served as a leadership facilitaor. Hafdís Hanna has an extensive experience in global sustainability, environmental education, development cooperation, and leadership. She is a sought after speaker and has a wide experience of delivering talks at various events, from local to UN level, including a TEDx Reykjavík talk. When not working, Hafdís Hanna enjoys singing and hiking in the great outdoors, which helps her maintain her well-being.
Cressida Gaukroger
Cressida Gaukroger is a Philosopher and Policy Advisor focusing on wellbeing economics and government systems change. She is a Senior Policy Advisor in the Wellbeing Government Initiative at the Centre for Policy Development (CPD), an Australian think-tank. The initiative is focused on working with Australian governments at all levels to put wellbeing at the heart of government decision-making. Cressida is lead author on Redefining Progress a global scan of wellbeing practice looking at 21 global approaches to wellbeing over the past 50 years, and identifying key characteristics of advanced wellbeing approaches to government.
Cressida has a PhD in Philosophy, and was a Departmental Lecturer in Practical Ethics at Oxford University until 2019. She has also taught at University College London, New York University, and City University of New York. Alongside her work at CPD she regularly writes op-ed pieces for Australian media, teaches ethical leadership courses, and writes children's books, the first of which will be published in October.
Lara Fleischer
Lara Fleischer is the Acting Head of the Well-being Data Insights and Policy Practice Team of the OECD WISE Centre (for Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity). Lara is responsible for the OECD’s work on benchmarking country performance in well-being, inclusion and sustainability, through the How’s Life? report series, and supports member countries in their efforts to develop national well-being frameworks. She has previously worked on a diverse range of well-being measurement topics, including trust and diversity, and is currently leading a project on promoting mental health outcomes by applying a well-being perspective. Prior to joining the OECD, Lara spent several years in Kenya, applying behavioural insights to development challenges. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from Oxford University.
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir
Prof. Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir (Ph.D.) is the director and principal investigator of ConCIV (Consortium on Compensating Income Variation).
Prof. Ásgeirsdóttir´s professional experiences involve teaching, research, and management of academic projects. She has held multiple editorial roles and is for example currently editor of the academic journal Health Economics. She has also served in many leadership roles within the academic community, such as being on the board of the University of Iceland (2008-2014 - elected by the academic community). She has additionally been involved in considerable governmental consultation and served on multiple boards, committees, and advisory panels. This includes leading Iceland´s Cabinet Committee on Icelandic Competitiveness: Wellbeing, Health, and Equality (2009–2011). Prof. Ásgeirsdóttir has received multiple research grants from entities such as the National Science Foundation, The Icelandic Research Fund, and NordForsk. She is involved in international collaboration across numerous countries and has, been a visiting scholar at various places, including The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), New York (2005-2006), KORA, Copenhagen (2013), and The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) (2016–2017), University of Montevideo (2022), and University of Tokyo (2023).
Dina von Heimburg
Dina von Heimburg is Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, where she also is the co-leader of WellFare: Nordic Research Center for Wellbeing and Social Sustainability. Dina is passionate about the interdependency between wellness and fairness for making people and future generations matter, both in processes and outcomes. Currently, she is working with several transdisciplinary research projects focusing on co-creation, relational welfare and the role of trust for empowering processes, joint actions, and transformative results. Dina has over a decade of practice working as a public health coordinator, policy entrepreneur and community developer in local governments, and has been involved in WHO's Norwegian network of Healthy Cities for many years. She is now a member of the WHO/EURO Universal Well-being Economy working group - the New Economics Expert Group (NEEG) and is also a part of the WHO Venice Office’s “deep dive team” working to explore and document wellbeing economies in Europe.
Tsering Kalden Lama
Tsering Kalden Lama is a Technical Consultant for the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, specializing in health promotion, social determinants of health and health equity. Tsering holds a Master of Science degree in Global Health, which has equipped her with a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected factors that influence health outcomes. Her experiences and qualifications have focused on addressing health inequities, promoting well-being, and supporting the development of effective health promotion strategies.
With her broad range of national and international experiences, spanning from Canada to the WHO Western Pacific Region and WHO European Region, Tsering has gained valuable insights into various health systems, policies, and cultural contexts, enabling her to understand the factors that influence health and well-being on a local and global scale.
In her current position with the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, Tsering is supporting member cities in the implementation of the Phase VII program. Her work revolves around facilitating knowledge exchange, providing technical support, and offering guidance to cities as they navigate the challenges and opportunities in creating healthier environments.
Gabriele Pastorino
Gabriele Pastorino’s background is in economics, health systems and policies. He started off his career in academia, at Bocconi University, Milan. Since 2006 he has been working internationally, first with non-governmental organizations and then joining in 2008 the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, where he coordinated the Health Systems in Transition’s series and developed the Health Systems and Policy Monitor. Since 2017 he works for the WHO Regional Office for Europe where he leads the health systems governance work within the Division for Country Health Policy and Systems. In 2020 he coordinated the work of the secretariat of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development. Since 2022 he is associated to the WHO European Well-being Economy Initiative. He is the editor of the WHO country deep dives series on the well-being economy.
Gígja Gunnarsdóttir
Gígja Gunnarsdóttir (MPH) has been working for the Directorate of Health (DOHI) since 2005. She is program manager for the Health Promoting Community (HPC) program which is also Iceland’s National network for WHO Healthy Cities. She represents DOHI in the national Scientific committee for climate change and has among other things lead the adaptation of Dahlgren and Whiteheads determinants of health model to Icelandic context including priority SDGs. With over two decades of work experience not only as public servant but also as NGO volunteer the current focus in the HPC work is to highlight synergy and support the implementation of various national policies at local level, actively spot challenges and contribute to solutions that make it easier for local governments to work across sectors, in systematic, data driven way towards wellbeing of all people and the planet via the SDGs.
Harpa Þorsteinsdóttir
Harpa holds a master´s degree in public health science from the University of Iceland. She is the public health project manager and the WHO Healthy City co-ordinator for the City of Reykjavík. In her capacity as Reykjavík public health project manager at the Mayor’s Office, she works on the development, implementation, and coordination of projects that cut cross all departments within the City of Reykjavík, including the implementation of a public health policy and action plan, as well as general management of the city's interdisciplinary work on health and well-being. She is especially interested in how to create good human cities and places that enable equity and well-being for all. Harpa was an elected municipal representative in Garðabær's municipal council in 2018-2022 and therefore has considerable experience working in various areas within administration and with political committees at the local government level.
online SPEAKERS
kristín vala ragnarsdóttir
Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir is Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Iceland (UI). Previously she was Dean of Engineering and Natural Sciences (UI) and Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Bristol, UK. She is a founding member and Ambassador for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), Distinguished Fellow at Schumacher Institute (UK), former Vice-President of the Balaton Group, and member of the Club or Rome and three scientific academies. She has been involved in evaluating natural resources and their economic link through system dynamics, determining sustainability indicators, finding fabric for sustainable communities including food security, and visioning sustainable futures. Vala was a member of the Icelandic Prime Minister´s committee developing Indicators for Wellbeing. Vala was the coordinator of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network for 12 PhD students: Adaptation of to a New Economic Reality (AdaptEconII), which was based on biophysical economics and systems thinking. In 2022 she co-edited and contributed to Transformation Literacy: Pathways to Regenerative Civilizations (Springer), and co-wrote a chapter on Regenerative Wellbeing Economy for New Economy, New Systems (Goodworks). Currently she is completing Rethinking Economics: Global Wellbeing (Edward Elgar).
Isaac Prilleltensky
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is the inaugural holder of the Erwin and Barbara Mautner Chair in Community Well-Being at the University of Miami, where he also served as Dean of Education and Human Development and Vice Provost for Institutional Culture. He has published twelve books and over 130 articles and chapters dealing with community well-being. His interests are in the connections among individual, organizational, and communal well-being. He is currently exploring relationships among mattering, wellness, and fairness. He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Prevention by the Society for Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. He is also the recipient of the Distinguished Contribution to Theory and Research Award of the Community Psychology Division of APA. In addition, he received the Seymour Sarason Award from the same division of APA. Isaac is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the American Educational Research Association. Isaac is an experienced consultant, coach, and administrator. He has considerable expertise in partnering with organizations to advance institutional culture and the common good. His latest book is How People Matter: Why it Affects, Health, Happiness, Love, Work, and Society. To learn more about his work visit www.professorisaac.com
Rutger Hoekstra
Rutger Hoekstra is the author of “Replacing GDP by 2030: Towards a common language for wellbeing and sustainability” which is published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University. He leads WISE Horizons, an EU-funded project, which is pursuing metrics and policies to enhance Wellbeing, Inclusion and Sustainability (WISE). In the past he has worked with/for European Commission, European Central Bank, United Nations, OECD, World Bank, Statistics Netherlands, various ministries, NGO’s, KPMG and a variety of large companies. He is a public speaker on all topics related to Beyond-GDP and post-growth futures and has lectured at various universities. He is also the co-director of www.beyond-gdp.world which provides data and insights on Wellbeing, Inclusion and Sustainability".
Éloi Laurent
Dr. Éloi Laurent is a senior economist at OFCE, professor at Ponts Paris Tech, at the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po and visiting professor at Stanford University (Paris and Stanford). Macro-economist by training (PhD), he graduated from Paris-Dauphine and Sciences Po (summa cum laude). His work focuses on the relationship between well-being and sustainability through the social-ecological approach, in particular the exploration of the sustainability-justice nexus and planetary health-human health nexus (“full health nexus”). He is the author or editor of twenty books in French and English (translated into nine languages), three governmental reports and around a hundred articles published in French and international journals. He was parliamentary attaché to the National Assembly and assistant in the cabinet of the French Prime Minister. He has been a Visiting Scholar at New York University (NYU) and Columbia University, Visiting Professor at the University of Montreal, and Visiting Scholar and Professor at Harvard University. He is Research Fellow at the Well-being Economy Alliance (WeALL), qualified expert for European institutions and chairman of the SHS 5 (economics and law) and Foresight (sustainable development) Commissions of the Scientific Research Fund, FRS- FNRS (Belgium). He recently published The New Environmental Economics – Sustainability and Justice (2020) https://politybooks.com/the-new-environmental-economics/ , The Well-being Transition: Analysis and Policy (2021) https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030678593 and the Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of the Environment (2021) https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-the-Political-Economy-of-the-Environment/Laurent-Zwickl/p/book/9780367410704 .
Fredrik Lindencrona
Dr Fredrik Lindencrona is a licensed psychologist from Sweden who has spent most of his career on the research to policy interface. He worked between 2000 and 2009 at Karolinska Institutet and National Institute for Psychosocial Medicine where he earned a Phd focused on interagency collaboration to developing conditions for refugee resettlement processes building on human capabilities and wellbeing. Fredrik was part of developing the innovation lab supporting the comprehensive national, regional and local strategy for mental health and wellbeing in Sweden in 2008. Fredrik was one of the initiators of Inner Development Goals initiative while leading the development of a long-term stategy for human capabilities and wellbeing in, the Region of Stockholm. Currently Fredrik splits his time between leading research at Inner Development Goals and his role as lead for strategic innovation and international collaboration at Swedish Association for Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). For SALAR his current focus is on leading a process with select local and regional Mayors and their civil servants to learn about how they can build sustainable governance for human capabilities and wellbeing. Throughout his career Fredrik has been very active in global learning and collaboration between sectors and actors and has worked with leaders in many countries, regions and local authorities/cities as well as with WHO, OECD and EU in order to drive learning and innovation to develop new approaches to achieve impact on a sustainable future for humanity and planet.
Tim Jackson
Tim Jackson is an ecological economist and writer. Since 2016 he has been Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) at the University of Surrey in the UK, where he is also Professor of Sustainable Development. From 2004 to 2011 he was Economics Commissioner for the UK Sustainable Development Commission where his work culminated in the publication of Prosperity without Growth (2009/2017) which has subsequently been translated into 17 foreign languages. It was named as a Financial Times ‘book of the year’ in 2010 and UnHerd’s economics book of the decade in 2019. His latest book Post Growth – life after capitalism was published by Polity Press in 2021. In 2016, Tim was awarded the Hillary Laureate for exceptional international leadership in sustainability. In addition to his academic work, Tim is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.
Chair
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Dóra Guðrún Guðmundsdóttir
Pétur Berg Matthíasson
Inga Berg Gísladóttir
Rósa Guðrún Erlingsdóttir
Sólveig Karlsdóttir
Hugrún Snorradóttir
Contact emails
SIGN UP NOW
Sign up now and get news regarding the Wellbeing Economy Forum
Velsældarþing póstlisti
