Marju Lauristin is an Estonian social scientist, lecturer and politician. She has graduated University of Tartu in journalism and sociology of mass communication and completed her PhD studies in journalism at Moscow University.
In 1992-1994 she was the minister of Social Affairs of Estonia. From 2003 she is the professor of Social communication at the University of Tartu.
Roy Leighton has developed a reputation for linking creativity, commerce and learning to assist individuals and organizations in transforming their level of achievement in many areas. Roy divides his time as a visiting lecturer at the European Business School and a part of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) with working with national and global corporations (BP, Sotheby’s) and educational institutions (including Oxford University) and in the U.K. and Europe.
Roy was part of the three person team who devised and presented the highly successful six-part BBC series ‘The Confidence Lab’.
Reet Aus is an Estonian fashion designer who is studying, creating and developing ethical and environmental design. For the last 6 years her main interest has been how fashion design can be a creative solution for production extras. She injects new life to discarded garments, production leftovers etc. Upcycling is the method she uses the most.
Reet holds her own fashion studio, creates costumes for theatre and films. She has been assigned the Estonian National Culture Award and Estonian Theatre Award.
Eero Paloheimo was a Green Party representative in the Finnish Parliament from 1987 until 1995 and, during his final year in Parliament, Chairman of the Committee of Long–Term Future Options. Paloheimo was also a professor for the Helsinki University of Technology from his resignation until the year 2000.
Eero Paloheimo is currently involved in the development of a new Finnish traffic system.
Jarek Kasar (Chalice) is a professional musician, whose activities have been highly recognized by critics, the public and different judges. His musical reach is wide, from hip-hop to modern opera. His career started as a rapper but has evolved into a combination of electronical and often eclectic traditions.
Dan Bogdanov works as a security researcher in Cybernetica. He defended his MSc in computer science in 2007 at the University of Tartu, and is currently a PhD student in computer science at the same university. Dan’s current research interests include secure multiparty computation and privacy preserving data mining. He is the main designer of the Sharemind privacy-preserving computation framework.
Dan is also active in privacy standards development, acting as the Estonian expert within the privacy working group in ISO SC27. He is also the co-editor of the ISO 29101 standard on a Privacy Reference Architecture. He is a recipient of the Ustus Agur scholarship from Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications (2010).
Heikki Haldre combines robots and fashion – two bizarre worlds that are further apart than Earth from the Sun. He gathers information about people’s bodies and works with this data and combines it with innovation. He believes that the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Heikki is the co-founder and CEO of Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room, is a seasoned entrepreneur having created and exited five companies. He has studied in five universities (graduated two) and has participated in 6 start-ups. He considers Estonia to be the biggest start-up.
Ragnar Viir is a doctor who has worked for 40 years in rehabilitation medicine. This and the work he accomplished for his doctorate have convinced him that many health problems associated with our seated lifestyle can be avoided much more easily than we would usually think.
Ragnar has worked as a doctor on baseships Stanislav Monjushko and Frederick Chopin in the Atlantic Ocean, in Värska medical centre in Setumaa and in several hospitals in Finland. At the moment he works as a private doctor in Helsinki and takes part in several research projects.
Rein Veidemann is an Estonian writer and journalist, professor at the Estonian Institute of Humanities at Tallinn University. He has graduated University of Tartu in Estonian and teacher of literature. He has been the chief editor of magazines “Looming” and “Vikerkaar”, worked at the Estonian Literary Museum, Institute of Language and Literature and Estonian Ministry of Culture. Rein was one of the leaders of the Popular Front of Estonia (Rahvarinne).
Rein has published 11 collections of papers and essays, a novel “Lastekodu” (“Orphanage”). From 2001 he is a columnist and critic at the newspaper “Postimees”. He recently published a book “101 eesti kirjandusteost” (“101 Estonian literary works”).
Hendrik Relve is a traveller and a writer. He has graduated in the Estonian University of Life Sciences in forestry and the University of Tartu in journalism.
In 1980s Hendrik participated in folkloristic and ethnological expeditions in Northern Siberia, later on travels on all continents. He has published numerous articles on these topics.
Hendrik has published more than 10 books about the nature of Estonia and the world, forestry and folklore. On the topic of his world travels he has published a book “Rändaja” (“Traveller”) in 2003. From 2001 he has his own radio show on Vikerraadio: “Kuula rändajat” (“Listen to the traveller”).
Mari Pokinen is a young Estonian singer whose debut album “22” came out only in 2010. She has sung in different choirs, participated in singing and violin contests. She writes her own songs. In addition to singing she is also an actor, she has graduated the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy.