Alasdair MacEachen

• Retired Local Government Officer, Fellow of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland. Past Chairman of the Islands Book Trust. Past Chairman of the Faroe Islands Study Circle ( completed a four year term on 31st May 2024). Current Chairman of Sealladh Hiort ( a group taking forward a plan to build a St Kilda Visitor Centre on North Uist). Current President of the St Kilda Club

Anna Karlsdóttir, Associate Professor & Fulbright Arctic Initiative Scholar, University of Iceland

• History in the Nordic Council, now Professor in Geography and Tourism Studies – Life & Environmental Dep., School of Engineering & Natural Sciences, University of Iceland. Specialised in coastal regions, rural districts and cities. Arctic, international relations, societal and industrial shifts across various sectors, including tourism, primary sectors.

Ben Arabo, CEO of the Faroese Business Development fund, Framtak.

• Framtak invests in innovative companies in the Faroe Islands. Currently the fund has a portfolio of 20 active investments. Ben Arabo, who is a Faroese national, is an economist with a background in the Energy sector and in the Financial sector.

Bjørt Samuelsen, Speaker of Løgtingið – Parliament of the Faroe Islands

• She has been a member of the Faroese Parliament since 2008 and has been Minister for Business, Infrastructure, and Gender Equality. Samuelsen has been a member of the Faroese Parliament's Committee on Industry and Fisheries (2008-2022), where she was chairman for several years (2017-2021). She has participated in several other committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Legal Affairs Committee, and has been a participating alternate member of the Nordic Council (2011-15), and a member of the West Nordic Council (2015-2019). In 2019, she joined the Presidium of Løgtingið, and in December 2022, was unanimously elected Chairwoman of the Faroese Parliament.
• In addition to independence and business policy, Samuelsen has worked with and been the party's spokesperson for business and industry, agriculture, green energy, and minority rights.
• Before Samuelsen became a politician, she worked as a journalist in the Consumer Report and NRK in Norway, as a press adviser at Løgmansskrivstovan, as a journalist for Kringvarp Føroya, as an advisor with his own business, and as a teacher in communication. Bjørt Samuelsen lives in Tórshavn with her husband, Peter Skou Østergård. They have two grown-up children and two grandsons.

Daniel Jarnæs Båtstrand, young entrepreneur, and leader of a local political party in Mosjøen, Norway

Firouz Gaini, professor in anthropology and head of research at the Faculty of History and Social Sciences, University of the Faroe Islands

He studied in Oslo, Copenhagen and Torshavn. His research focuses on young people, family relations, small island communities, and future(s). He is associate editor of Island Studies Journal and BARN – forskning om barn og barndom i Norden. He has done ethnographic fieldwork in Greenland, Japan and the Faroe Islands. He is the co-editor of several books, including Gender and island Communities (Routledge 2020) and Valuing the Past, Sustaining the Future? Exploring Coastal Societies, Childhood(s) and Local Knowledge in Times of Global Transition (Springer 2022).

Gestur Hovgaard, Professor in Arctic Social Science, Greenland/Faroe Islands

• My research takes a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary social science approach, exploring the complex interplay between people, institutions, and the dynamics of stability and change. I focus on contextual, practice-oriented studies with social-historical, contemporary, and forward-looking perspectives on development and planning in local communities and institutions, particularly their interactions. My work spans innovation, entrepreneurship, regional development, urban planning, business development, and mobility.
• Empirically, I study planning processes in local communities and organizations, focusing on the Nordic region and Arctic areas. My current projects include challenges faced by small, peripheral universities in educational planning, opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, sustainable value chains in Nordic fishing communities, and socio-economic studies on the market society’s historical development in Nordic peripheral areas.

Dr. Gréta Bergrún Jóhannesdóttir, Researcher at Bifröst University, Iceland

• Researcher with a focus on rural Iceland, gender, sociology and equality.

Halla Nolsøe Poulsen, Director of Nordic Atlantic Cooperation - NORA

• Previous Head of Faroese Representation in Iceland with a demonstrated history of working in the international and diplomatic affairs industry. Strong community and social services professional skilled in International Relations, Public Administration, Political Science, Politics, and Policy Analysis.
• Former senior adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Industry, 2015-2023, and former senior advisor, Nordic Council secretariat 2007-2015.

Hanna Jensen, Member of Løgtingið – Parliament of the Faroe Islands

• Hanna is a Faroese politician and educator with an M.A. in Faroese and French. She has been a member of the Faroese Parliament (Løgtingið) since December 2022, previously serving from 2015 to 2019. She has held key political roles, including Chair of the Culture Committee (2015-2019) and Minister of Education in 2019. She is currently a member of the Finance and Government Affairs Committees.
• Beyond politics, Hanna has been a teacher at Kambsdalur College (2005-2024) and served as its rector (2021-2023). She has also been a member of the Eystur Municipality Council since 2009.

John Goodlad, Shetland

• John has worked in the seafood industry throughout his career. Initially working for the Shetland Fishermen’s Association, he also became a Director of several fish processing companies.  He then became a fish farmer, specialising in the production of organic salmon and halibut. After selling this business, John worked for Prince Charles’s International Sustainability Unit, providing advice on a variety of global fisheries and aquaculture initiatives.
• John now advises two international Seafood Investment Funds whose focus is investing in sustainable fishing and fish farming projects in the developing world. He also is the Chair of the UHI Centre for Sustainable Seafood, which aspires to place the seafood industry at the heart of the sustainability debate and to enable it to become more proactive in this area.
• John is also an author. Following on the success of his last book, The Salt Roads, his new book Food from the Sea (June, 2025) looks at the future of the global seafood industry.

John Randall, Chairman of the Islands Book Trust.

Johnny í Grótinum, Chair of the Faroe Islands Economic Council, Lecturer in Economics and Management

Karin Marie Funding Lyster, entrepreneur, Faroe Islands

• Born in Denmark, raised in the Faroe Islands, and graduated in Norway. Founded MAI Learning AS, an EdTech company focused on integrating AI into daily life through a human-centric approach, with solutions developed alongside our customers. Won best Arctic youth company (X2) and earned a silver medal in Norwegian youth entrepreneurship.

Kjersti Eline Tønnessen Busch, CEO and Founder of SALT – Sustainable Coastal Development, Norway 

Lesley Riddoch, Journalist

• Lesley is an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, author, filmmaker, podcaster, cyclist and land reform campaigner. She was a member of the trust that helped the people of Eigg buy their own island in 1997 and founded Africawoman, a charity that trained female journalists across the continent in 1999. In 2020 she won the Saltire Society Fletcher of Saltoun Award for her contribution to public life. Lesley has co-presented a weekly Lesley Riddoch Podcast for more than a decade - now with North Fife neighbour Patrick Joyce.
• She has written five books (the latest Thrive explores the case for independence) and co-produced/presented six films (the latest about Denmark was screened across Scotland in early 2024). This and other films about Norway, Faroes, Iceland, Estonia and the Declaration of Arbroath are online here. Lesley is co-founder and director of the Scottish think tank Nordic Horizons which has brought 70 Nordic specialists over to Scotland (or online) to speak in the Scottish Parliament and meet MSPs, civil servants and the Scottish public since 2011. 

Tom Wills, Co-Founder, Equitable Energy Research and Director, Voar, Shetland

• Tom Wills is a a co-founder of Equitable Energy Research CIC and a director of Voar, a Shetland-based energy consultancy. Tom's recent work has included co-authoring reports for Scotland's Just Transition Commission and Shetland Islands Council on a fair level of community benefit from energy developments, and advising the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office.
• Tom holds mechanical and marine engineering degrees from the University of Glasgow and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Tom worked for over 15 years in offshore renewable energy, including on projects at the European Marine Energy Centre and in South America and South-East Asia.

Þorsteinn Másson, Managing Director, Blámi Energy Initiative, Iceland

• As a managing director at Blami, I lead a team of capable engineers, lawyers and consultants, focusing on materializing energy transition projects. We are working with diverse stakeholders ranging from entrepreneurs, power companies, governmental agencies and Iceland largest aquaculture companies.  
• With degrees in both Business and Marine Engineering, Thorsteinn brings extensive experience from his tenure in the fishing, aquaculture and energy industries. Blami has formed strategic partnerships with key players across multiple domains—ranging from aquaculture and fishing organizations to cutting-edge tech firms, municipalities, and government agencies. Together with his dedicated team, Blami has spearheaded innovative projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions and bolstering the use of sustainable energy. 

Þóroddur Bjarnason, Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland.

• He holds a MA from the University of Essex and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. He has taken part in the development and implementation of regional policies in Iceland in various capacities. His research interests include the regional impact of higher education, patterns of inclusion and exclusion, technological changes and regional development, and the causes and consequences of geographical mobility. His recent publications include contributions to Acta Sociologica, Journal of Rural Studies, Population, Space and Place, and Sociologia Ruralis.

Vifill Karlsson is a professor at Bifrost University, and an associated professor at the University of Akureyri (UNAK) along with a job as a consultant at the West-Iceland Regional Development (WRD).

• He has been employed at WRD since 2000, UNAK since 2012, and 1996 at Bifrost University in two periods, first from 1996-2012 and the second from 2021. He finished a Cand. Polit. degree in economics from the University of Bergen Norway in 1997 and Ph.D. in economics in the fall of 2012 at the University of Iceland. Spatial economics is his first special field and environment- and resource economics is his second special field. He has published several papers and studies in spatial economics and taught many courses in economics and statistics.

People from Scotland, Scottish Isles, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Norway have been especially invited to take active part in the conference.

Scotland

• Inga Burton, Elsa Cox

Greenland

• Miki Jensen, Aviaja Lennert Olsen, Natuk Lund Meire, Thomas Mogensen

Iceland 

Faroe Islands

• Paul Condy     

Norway