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The Wellbeing Economy Forum brings together leaders, thinkers, and communities to explore pathways toward a sustainable and equitable economy that supports human and planetary well-being. Since its inception, the forum has convened stakeholders from across sectors to share insights, develop strategies, and inspire collaborative action. Below is a look back at the impactful sessions, speakers, and activities from the past two years.

2024 Forum Highlights

Theme: Building Sustainable Economies Through Community Wellbeing

The 2024 Wellbeing Economy Forum emphasized the role of community-driven well-being and sustainable economic practices in fostering healthier societies. The forum included a range of sessions designed to address current challenges in economic policy, public health, and global governance, with partnerships from leading organizations.

Speakers: Live Presentations

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

Guðni Th. Jóhannesson is the 6th president of the Republic of Iceland. He was inaugurated on 1st of August 2016 and re-elected in 2020. A historian by profession, Guðni studied history at the University of Iceland and Oxford University in England. In 2003 he completed his Ph.D. from Queen Mary University of London. Before taking office Guðni was Professor of History at the University of Iceland. He has written numerous books and scholarly articles on modern Icelandic history and has received a various recognitions for his works. Guðni is married to Eliza Jean Reid and has five children.

Bjarni Benediktsson

Bjarni Benediktsson is the Prime Minister of Iceland. Bjarni took office as Prime Minister in April 2024 and has been a member of the Icelandic parliament Althingi for Southwest Iceland since 2003 for the Independence Party. He has been the Leader of the Independence Party since 2009. Bjarni was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2023-2024, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs from 2017-2023, Prime Minister 2017 and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs from 2013-2017. Bjarni governs in coalition with the Centrist Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement.

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 been a member of Althingi for the Southwest Constituency since 2013 for the Progressive Party. Before being appointed Minister of Health, Þórsson served as chair of the Budget Committee from 2017-2021 and 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.

Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson

Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson is the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in Iceland. Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson took office as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in April 2024 and has been a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the South Constituency since 2009 for the Progressive Party. He has been Chairman of the Progressive Party since 2016 and was Deputy Chairman of the parliamentary group of the Progressive Party from 2009-2013. Sigurður Ingi was Minister of Infrastructure from 2021-2024, Minister of Transport and Local Government from 2017-2021, Minister for Nordic Co-operation from 2017-2021, Prime Minister from 2016-2017, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture from 2013-2016 and Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources from 2013-2014.

Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir

Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir is the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland. Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir took office as Minister for Foreign Affairs on 9 April 2024 and has been a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the Nort-West Constituency since 2016 for the Independence Party. Þórdís was Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs from 2023-2024, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2021-2023, Minister of Justice 2019 and Minister of Tourism, Industry and Innovation from 2017-2021.

Svandís Svavarsdóttir

Svandis Svavarsdóttir is the Minister of Infrastructure in Iceland. Svandis has served as the Minister of Infrastructure in Iceland since April 2024. Previously, she was the Minister for the Environment from 2009 to 2013, the Minister of Health from 2017 to 2021, and the Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries from 2021 to 2024. She has been an elected member of the Icelandic parliament since 2009 and, before that, was a city councilor in Reykjavík. She graduated from Menntaskólinn við Hamrahlíð in 1983 and earned a BA degree in General Linguistics and Icelandic from the University of Iceland in 1989.

Tom Arthur

Tom Arthur was appointed as Minister for Employment and Investment in May 2024. Born in Paisley in 1985, he was first elected to the Scottish Parliament for the seat of Renfrewshire South at the 2016 election, holding the seat in 2021. He joined the Scottish Government as Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth in May 2021. Mr Arthur was raised in Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, where he was educated at Cross Arthurlie Primary and Barrhead High School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music then later Master of Music from the University of Glasgow. Before entering politics, he worked as a company director, freelance piano teacher and keyboardist.

Gabriela Ramos

Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, overseeing the institution's contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fights against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science, including neurotechnology and the Internet of things. She has overseen the development and adoption of the first global instrument to promote the ethics of artificial intelligence, adopted by acclamation in 2021 by UNESCO's General Conference. She is currently leading UNESCO and international policy-makers and experts’ call to establish a global governance of the ethics of neurotechnology. Previously, Gabriela Ramos worked as Cabinet Director and Sherpa for the G20, G7 and APEC at the OECD, contributing to increasing the OECD's global impact and leading key initiatives such as "Inclusive Growth", "New Approaches to Economic Challenges", "Climate Change and Growth", the gender equality strategy and work on well-being and children. In 2013 she was awarded the Order of Merit (Ordre du Mérite) by the President of France. Her work to promote gender equality has earned her several awards including from Forbes and Apolitico. She has been a Fulbright and Ford McArthur Fellow. She is an alumna of Harvard University's Masters in Public Policy and Universidad Iberoamericana's BA in International Relations. She is a board member of the "Paris Peace Forum"; the "UNICEF Advisory Board"; as well as the "Lancet Commissions on COVID and Men's Violence against Women", and a member of the Danone "Entreprise à Mission" Committee.

Sandrine Dixson-Decleve

Sandrine Dixson-Decleve is environmental scientist and policy specialist. She has spent her career working with and bringing together business leaders, policy makers, academia and NGO’s to unpack complex challenges and translate science and complex thinking into policy with a focus on complex systems analysis, international and European climate, energy, sustainable development, sustainable finance policy development and implementation. Sandrine is the Co-President of the Club of Rome and Executive Chair of Earth For All and sits on several non-executive boards and advisory boards including for BMW, EDP, UCB, Climate KIC, Leonardo Centre, Imperial College London. In addition, she is a Commissioner for the Global Climate Governance Commission, an Ambassador for the Energy Transition Commission (ETC) and the Well Being Alliance (WeAll) and a Fellow of the World Academy of Science & Art. In 2017 Sandrine co-founded the Women Enablers Change Agent Network (WECAN). She teaches at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium and is a Senior Associate and faculty member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

Ilona kickbusch

Professor Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Digital Transformations for Health LAB at the University of Geneva and co-chair of the Council of the World Health Summit. She is a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, the WHO Council on the Economic of Health for All, Founder and Chair of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and vice-president of the European Health Forum Gastein. She works on a continuous basis with EU presidencies on global health and was advisor to the development of a revised European Global Health Strategy. She publishes widely and serves on many commissions and boards. She initiated the @wgh300 list of women leaders in global health. She is program chair of the leaders in health network SCIANA at Salzburg Global. She was co-chair of a Lancet FT Commission on“Governing health futures 2030: growing up in a digital world.” She is honorary professor at the Charité, Berlin. Professor Kickbusch has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization. She was key instigator of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and WHOs Healthy Cities Network. She was the director of the Global Health Division at Yale University School of Public Health and responsible for the first Fulbright Programme on global health. She has received many prizes and recognitions. She has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) and the WHO Medal for contributions to global health.

Lorenzo Fioramonti

Professor Lorenzo Fioramonti is the Founding Director of the Institute for Sustainability at the University of Surrey (UK) and a former member of Parliament and Minister of Education, University and Research in Italy. He is passionate about sustainability education and research and his books include: Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth (MacMillan 2017) and The World After GDP: Economics, Politics and International Relations in the Post-Growth Era (Polity 2017), which have been featured – among others - by Bloomberg and the Financial Times. Lorenzo’s opinion pieces have been published by The New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Harvard Business Review, TruthOut, Die Presse, The Conversation, Das Parlament, Der Freitag, The Mail & Guardian, Business Day and www.opendemocracy.net.Lorenzo is a member of the Club of Rome (a leading international institution dedicated to rethinking growth through a wellbeing lens) and the Co-chair of Surrey County Council’s Greener Futures Board. He is also a sought-after public speaker on issues regarding sustainable wellbeing, governance innovation and purpose-driven business. If you want to know more, Lorenzo’s personal website is www.lorenzofioramonti.org.

Katherine Trebeck

Katherine Trebeck is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. Her roles include writer–at–large at the University of Edinburgh, Economic Change Lead at The Next Economy, and Strategic Advisor to the Centre for Policy Development. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub. Katherine instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) – comprising Scotland, New Zealand, Finland, Wales, and Iceland. Katherine is a thinker–in–residence at the Australian National University’s Planetary Health Hot House, a New Economics Senior Fellow at the ZOE Institute, and a Fellow of The Post Growth Institute. She is a member of the Club of Rome and sits on the boards of Hands Across Canberra, the Wellbeing Economy Lab Denmark, and the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity. She has over eight years’ experience in various roles with Oxfam GB, where she developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index and led Oxfam’s work on downscaling the ‘doughnut’ for various national contexts.

Victoria Hurth

Dr Victoria Hurth works globally at the intersect of academia and hands-on decision-making to help organisations transition to be drivers of long-term wellbeing for all (sustainability). She advises decision-makers on the intersect between purpose, sustainability, ESG and reporting and how to lead the transformative change needed. Among other achievements she co-led the 5-year development of the first global ISO standard in Governance of Organizations (ISO 37000:2021), was Technical Author for the first national standard in Purpose-Driven Organisations (PAS 808:2022) and advised the UN on the methodology for SDG 12.6.1 (sustainability reporting). As a Fellow of University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Victoria is engaged in a range of executive and academic leadership programmes. Victoria heads the Sustainability Impact Advisory committee for UnaTerra Venture Capital, a member of SACE’s (Italy’s national export underwriter) Impact Advisory Committee, a regular UNCTAD review panel member for ISAR Honors and was a member of WBCSD’s working group on Governance.  Victoria is currently a Non-Executive Director of the organic standards company Soil Association Certification Ltd. She has over 20 years’ experience in business transformation having previously worked for 3M and Accenture and developing theory as a full time Associate Professor of Sustainable Business and Marketing.

Richard Layard

Professor Lord 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.

John Alderdice

Lord John Alderdice is a member of the UK House of Lords. He has spent a lifetime working on understanding and addressing religious fundamentalism, radicalisation, terrorism, and violent political conflict, including work with indigenous communities. With an academic and professional background in medicine, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis, he was elected Leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party from 1987 to 1998, playing a significant role in the negotiation of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement which he worked to implement as the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly. Having been appointed to House of Lords in 1996 he was elected Convenor of the Liberal Democrats for the first four years of the Liberal/Conservative Coalition Government from 2010 to 2014. His international interests had previously led to his election as President of Liberal International, the global network of some 100 liberal political parties and organizations. He served from 2005 to 2009 and remains an active Presidente D’Honneur. Lord Alderdice is the founding Director of the Conference on the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, based in Oxford and with colleagues in Belfast he also established the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building which continues work on the implementation of the principles of the Good Friday Agreement and takes the lessons of the Irish Peace Process to other communities in conflict. More recently he set up The Concord Foundation with a wider remit in understanding and addressing the nature of violent political conflict and its resolution, towards well-being of all. Lord Alderdice’s work has been recognized throughout the world with many fellowships, visiting professorships, honorary doctorates, and international awards.

Kira Fortune

Kira Fortune is responsible for Healthy Cities, Health Promotion and Well-being in the Regional WHO Office of Europe. Kira has spent the last 25 years specializing in public health, equity, community engagement and the social determinants of health in various international organizations across the globe. Prior to taking up the position in Copenhagen, she managed the Social Determinants of Health and Violence and Injury Prevention Unit at the Regional WHO Office of the Western Pacific, in Manila. She also spent ten years at the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office of the World Health Organization in Washington D.C., coordinating the work on the social determinants of health, healthy cities, health-in-all policies and the sustainable development goals within the Americas. Kira has extensive experience working across the international stage from global NGOs, academia as well as with inter-governmental organizations. Before joining the World Health Organization, Kira managed The International Health Research Network in Denmark and spent four years working in the Department of Global Advocacy at The International Planned Parenthood Federation in London. Kira also worked for three years with UNICEF in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she was responsible for the Programme on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV. Kira holds a Doctorate in Sociology from City University London; a Master’s Degree in Anthropology, Gender and Development, and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of London. She also has a Master’s Degree in International Health from University of Copenhagen.

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 convening health, finance and economic sectors around investing for health and 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.

Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir

Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir has been the Director of the OECD Development Centre since 16 August 2021. Ms. Árnadóttir served as Minister of Industry and Commerce in Iceland from 2013-2017 and was an elected Member of Parliament for the Independence Party from 2007-2016. Before being elected to Parliament, she was successively a political advisor to the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister. She also worked for the Trade Council of Iceland in New York and Reykjavík. A nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Centre, she was also a Board member of RÚV (Icelandic National Broadcasting Company) and the American- Icelandic Chamber of Commerce. She was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Duty Free Iceland and a member of the Board of Directors of Landsvirkjun (national power company). Ms. Árnadóttir has a Master’s Degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences from the University of Iceland.

Einar Þorsteinsson

Einar Þorsteinsson is the Mayor of the City of Reykjavík. Einar was elected as new Mayor of Reykjavík in January 2024, as a part of a power-sharing agreement after the municipal elections in 2022, where he led the Progressive Party to a great result and became the party’s first mayor. Einar studied political science and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Iceland, as well as having attended the University of Miami as part of an academic exchange programme. During his university years, Einar was the chairman of Politica, the Association of Political Science Students. In 2004, Einar started his career at the Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation (RUV), first as a sports reporter, and then as a news reporter, news anchor and editor-in-chief for Kastljós, a television news magazine. Over the years, Einar has coordinated and hosted numerous TV debates and election result shows for parliamentary, local government and presidential elections.When Einar became the leader of the Progressive Party in Reykjavík for the municipality elections in 2022, he resigned from his job at the Icelandic Broadcasting Company. He served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the City Council for 18 months before becoming the Mayor of Reykjavík. Einar heads a four-party coalition that consists of the Progressive Party, the Pirate Party, the Social Democratic Alliance, and the Liberal Reform Party.

Dagur B. Eggertsson

Dagur B. Eggertsson deputy mayor of Reykjavik is a medical doctor and was one of the longest serving mayors of Reykjavik, 2014-2024. He has served as chairman of OECD Champion mayors for inclusive growth and has been active participant in numerous international projects and forums. One of Dagur's focus in his work as mayor and city councillor has been working with the third sector and academia on public health initiatives and preventive work for children and youth in Reykjavik. Dagur studied, trained and worked as a physician and also has a master’s degree in Human Rights and International Law from the University of Lund in Sweden.

Filip Chvátal

Filip Chvátal is the Deputy Mayor of the city of Brno in the Czech Republic, responsible for environmental protection, water and forestry management, agriculture, family policies, barrier-free accessibility, and the Healthy City project. He has been a member of the Brno City Council since 2018 and previously served as the Councilor for Urban Planning and Development, and later for Participatory Budgeting.

Linda Granlund

Linda Granlund is the Director General of Division of Prevention and Public Health in the Norwegian Directorate of Health (DOH) and is in charge of all work in relation to NCDs, determinants and risk factors including mental health issues, and promoting factors that bring good health to the Norwegian population. She has extensive experience in leading large national and regional programs and is currently leading JA PreventNCD which is an ambitious effort—both from the European Commission and participating countries—to provide strategic guidance and consolidated efforts in the field of cancer and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) prevention. The goal is to reduce the burden of cancer and other NCDs and common risk factors in Europe. Linda has a PhD in Nutrition, and has extensive experience in working across sectors, including the food industry, academia, and the governmental sector, with the aim of turning the Norwegian population in a healthier direction. She also has more than 20 years of experience with working within The Norwegian diabetes federation, leading the work at both national, regional, and international level.

Veli-Mikko Niemi

Dr Veli-Mikko Niemi was appointed as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland in 2022. Previously, he was Director General at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Department for Communities and Functional Capacities between 2020 -2022 (Health and Social services for children, youth and families, services for people with disabilities, services for elderly, medical and social rehabilitation as well as the promotion of social wellbeing, functional capacity and health and prevention of illness.) The department is responsible for the coordination of the Ministry’s state subsidy activities and subsidies granted for the promotion of health and social wellbeing from gaming revenue.He has been Director General and the Head of the International Affairs Unit of the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health since January 2018, (developing, planning and coordinating the Ministry’s International and EU affairs). Between 2014-2017, Dr Niemi worked as Director General of the Ministry’s Department for Promotion of Welfare and Health. Dr Niemi worked as Director of Food Safety at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry from 2007-2014, and before that as Deputy Director General. He also worked as a national expert at the European Commission from 1998-2000. Dr Niemi graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine (Helsinki University) in 1987 and holds the Degree of Specialised Veterinarian in Food and Environmental Hygiene.

Heli Hätönen

Heli Hätönen is a senior ministerial advisor for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. She is responsible for the promotion of health and wellbeing. She has over 20 years of experience in the management, development, and research of the social and healthcare. Heli earned her PhD in 2010 from Turku University, Finland.

Gary Gillespie

Dr. Gary Gillespie 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. Gary 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. Gary 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. Gary 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.

Speakers: Online Presentations

Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) and UN Messenger of Peace, is a world-renowned ethologist and activist inspiring greater understanding and action on behalf of the natural world. Dr. Goodall is known for

groundbreaking studies of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, transformative research which continues today as the longest running wild chimpanzee study in the world. Jane’s work builds on innovative science, growing a lifetime of advocacy particularly through her global organization the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977. Her trailblazing efforts advance community-led conservation through JGI’s Tacare approach empowering local communities to own the process of sustainable development and conservation, care and concern for orphan chimpanzees in two sanctuaries in Republic of Congo and South Africa and through Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. Roots & Shoots is a global environmental and humanitarian program empowering young people of all ages to become involved in hands-on projects of their choosing to benefit the community, animals (including domestic animals) and the environment and is active in nearly 70 countries (www.janegoodall.global, www.rootsandshoots.global). Today, Jane continues to connect with worldwide audiences during her global tours and through ‘Virtual Jane’ including remote lectures, recordings, and her podcast, the “Jane Goodall Hopecast.” Jane has received countless awards and hon. degrees and is the author of many books for adults and children including the latest “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times.”

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.”

Philippe Roux

Mr Roux started his career in the French Social sector in 1985. During the same time, he studied social sciences, European law and Public Health. He worked with DG V (Employment and Social Affairs) from 1990 to 1998 in support of the development of EU initiatives related to drug prevention. In September 1998, he joined the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction where he contributed to the development of the framework and tools for the evaluation of the EU action plans on drugs. He was nominated deputy Head of Unit of the “Interventions, law and policy” Unit of the Agency In 2002. In 2005, he joined the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, where he worked in the Nutrition and Physical Activity team of the Health Determinants Unit on the coordination of the European Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. In July 2013, he became Head of Unit of the Health Determinants Unit. Subsequently, he was nominated Head of Unit of the ‘Country Knowledge and Scientific Committees’ unit in March 2016, and later Head of Unit for ‘Health Information and Integration in all policies’ in October 2020. In October 2022, he became Head of Unit for ‘Cancer, Health in all Policies’ with the mission to implement policies and organise activities to achieve the objectives of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and to ensure the EU’s overall health policy objectives are taken on board in EU policies. On 1 September 2023, Mr Roux was nominated Acting Director ‘Public Health, Cancer and Health Security’.

2023 Forum Highlights

Theme: Laying the Foundations for a Wellbeing Economy

The inaugural 2023 forum set the stage by examining foundational elements essential to establishing a wellbeing economy. Sessions addressed topics like equitable governance, welfare, and measurements of well-being, alongside discussions on how policies impact public health and quality of life.

Speakers: Live Presentations

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.

Hans Kluge

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.

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.

Bjarni Benediktsson

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.

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.

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).

Speakers: Online Presentations

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).

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".

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.

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

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 .

The Wellbeing Economy Forum is an event that forms part of JA PreventNCD. JA PreventNCD is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HADEA). Neither the European Union nor HADEA can be held responsible for them.