The recent Camden Conference focused on The Geopolitics of the Arctic. This is the second episode of our three-part series featuring Frances Ulmer on Winners and Losers in the 21st Century Arctic; Ulf Sverdrup on A Frozen Region Goes Dynamic; and Gail Whiteman on What Happens in the Arctic Doesn't Stay There: The Arctic as a Barometer of Global Risk.
Frances Ulmer
Chair, United States Arctic Research Commission
Former Lt. Governor of Alaska, Mayor of Juneau, and
Chancellor, University of Alaska Anchorage
Frances Ulmer is Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, appointed by President Obama. He had also appointed her to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Now a Senior Fellow at the Arctic Initiative in the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Ms. Ulmer’s research interests include energy, environmental policy, natural resource management and sustainable development. She is a member of the Global Board of the Nature Conservancy and the Board of the National Parks Conservation Association. From 2007 to 2011, Ms. Ulmer was chancellor of Alaska's largest public university, the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Before that, she was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at UAA.
An elected official for 18 years, she served as mayor of Juneau, a state representative, and Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. She had previously been legal counsel to the Alaska Legislature and Director of Policy Development for the state. She was the first Chair of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council and served for more than 10 years on the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission.
Ulf Sverdrup
Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
Ulf Sverdrup is the Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Before taking up the position at NUPI, he was a professor at the Norwegian Business School (BI) and a research professor at ARENA, Centre for European Studies, at the University of Oslo. Dr. Sverdrup has been a Jean Monnet fellow at the European University Institute, (Italy), and a visiting scholar at the Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (Germany).
He has also worked as senior advisor in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a regular contributor to Dagens Næringsliv and to the Arctic Security Roundtable organized jointly by the Munich Security Conference, the Wilson Centre and NUPI.
He earned his Master’s degree at the University of Bergen and a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Oslo.
Gail Whiteman
Professor of Sustainability
University of Exeter Business School, United Kingdom
Founder, Arctic Basecamp at Davos
Gail Whiteman is Professor of Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School (United Kingdom), and Professor-in-Residence at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, where she is actively involved in building science-based targets, including those for a future low-carbon economy. Dr. Whiteman is an expert on global socio-economic risks emerging from climate change. She is the founder and Executive Director of Arctic Basecamp, a unique science-communication platform with a flagship event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
She has published over 60 academic papers, including co-authored pieces with Christiana Figueres, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. She is a regular contributor to the World Economic Forum’s online Agenda. Dr. Whiteman earned a Ph.D. in business organization and management at Queen’s University (Canada).
Source: www.camdenconference.org