Professor Dr. Bernd Henningsen
Honorary Professor at the Department for Northern European Studies, Humboldt University in Berlin; in 1992 he was its founding director. Studied political science, Nordic philology, philosophy, and psychology at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, where also received Ph.D. (Die Politik des Einzelnen. Zur Genese der skandinavischen Ziviltheologie) and Habilitation (Der Wohlfahrtsstaat Schweden). Guest lecturer/professor at the Scandinavian universities of Aarhus, Odense, Uppsala, Stockholm, Örebro and Copenhagen. Knight of the Norwegian order of St. Olav, the Swedish order of the Polar Star, the Danish order of the Dannebrog.
Professor Stein Kuhnle
Political scientist studying and teaching comparative social policy and welfare state reform. Professor at the University of Bergen, where he has received a cand. polit. degree and directed the Department of Comparative Politics for many years, as well as at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. He also serves as Honorary Professor at the Centre for Welfare State Research at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, and as Honorary Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. As visiting scholar and professor, he has done research and given seminars at the University of California, Berkeley, the London School of Economics, the European University Institute in Florence, the University of Mannheim and at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Professor Dr. Joakim Palme
Sociologist and Professor of Political Science at Uppsala University and the University of Southern Denmark. Former director of the Institute for Future Studies in Stockholm. Associated researcher at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI). Member of the Board of the Uppsala Centre for Labour Studies (UCLS) and the Hanaholmen Cultural Centre in Helsinki. From 1999-2001, chairman of the Welfare Commission (Kommittén Välfärdsbokslut) of the Swedish government. Vice Chairman of the Board of the Olof Palme Memorial Fund. He has written numerous publications on social policy.
Professor Dr. Antoni Rajkiewicz
Professor emeritus at Warsaw University where he was a founder and the first director of the Institute of Social Policy (1977-1982). Economist, demographer and social policy specialist. Author of a few hundreds publications on employment policy, social security systems in various countries, education, international migrations and other topics. Tutor of more than forty Ph.D. dissertations and over 500 M.A. theses. Longtime Editor-in-Chief of the “Polityka Społeczna” monthly. Minister for Labour, Wages and Social Affairs (1981-1982). Doctor honoris causa of the University of Helsinki (1995).
Professor Lars Rydén
Director emeritus of the Baltic University Programme. He was up to September 2007 from its beginning in 1991 director of the Baltic University Programme (BUP) at Uppsala University, a programme he initiated. During 1986-1994 prof. Rydén was a member of the Talloires Universities network secretariat coordinating activities at Tufts University in USA, Tokay University in Japan and Uppsala University. In the Baltic University Programme he has written and edited a series of books on environmental science, sustainability science and regional development, biochemistry and biotechnology. From 1974 an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Uppsala University.
Professor Dr. Piotr Sałustowicz
Professor emeritus at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany. President, and then honorary president of the European Section, International Consortium for Social Development (ICSD). Member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the “International Journal of Social Welfare”, edited by Stockholm University and School of Social Welfare, UC at Berkeley. Editor-in-Chief of the series “European Perspectives on Social Development: Social Policy and Social Work”, published in Berlin since 2008. Founder of the scientific publisher Societas Pars Mundi in Bielefeld
Stefan Widomski
Former Vice-President of the Nokia telecommunication company, which he joined in 1972. Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Espoo, Finland, since 1993. Longtime president of the board of the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce, then its honorary member. Longtime president of the Southern Finland chapter, Finland-Russia Society; holder of its Golden Decoration. Advisor on Russia in the Finnish Innovation Fund, SITRA (2006-2008). In the 1970s, served to the President of Finland as an interpreter. Knight, first class, of the order of the Lion of Finland.