Headline Knowledge Partner
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Headline Knowledge Partner
Christina Lang
Chief Executive Officer, DigitalService, Germany
Christina Lang is co-founder and CEO of the DigitalService, the internal digitalization unit of the Federal Government of Germany. Providing interdisciplinary product teams, the DigitalService builds user-centered digital public services together with the government. It also drives the digital transformation of public administration through the fellowships Tech4Germany and Work4Germany. In spring 2020, she initiated the #WirVsVirus hackathon of the German Government as a national, coordinated covid response effort. Before founding the DigitalService in 2019, Christina worked at the Federal Foreign Office and as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company. She is a trained lawyer and holds a Management degree from London Business School.
Gal Amir
Head, Governmental Procurement Administration, Ministry of Finance, Israel
Martin Ledolter
Managing Director, Federal Procurement Agency, Austria
Francis Trudel
Associate Chief Human Resources Officer, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Canada
Rekha Sharma
Chairperson, National Commission for Women, India
Biography to be updated shortly.
Dag Strømsnes
Division Director, The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management, Norway
Dag Strømsnes is a division director and the Chief Procurement Officer in Norway. He has had this position since 2008.
As head of the Norwegian public procurement department Dag is in charge of public procurement in Norway. He is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to ensure that public procurement in full compliance with the financial regulations and rules, and for ensuring that it provides value for money and that innovation and sustainable goals are included in the public procurement.in Norway.
Dag is also responsible for the CPB, the unit in charge of negotiating framework agreements for the Norwegian government
Dag’s department works in relation to covers all kind types of procurements such as for; goods, services, ICT, works/construction and infrastructure investments, and has a remit to improve public procurement in Norway. There are 100 employees in his department.
Before Dag started as CPO in Norway, he was a director in PwC. He worked as a procurement consultant for eight years.
Kristiina Kivirand
Head, Procurement and Quality, Estonian Stockpiling Agency, Estonia
She started in her current position in Dec 2021 – the same year as ESPA was created.
Her main tasks are related to planning, execution and supervision of public procurement and purchases. She is responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s legal documentation regarding procurement and stocks.
She has created company’s quality management system and integrated it into work processes, implements the quality system and ensures compliance. Under her responsibility falls also anti-corruption activities in ESPA.
During the period 2014-2021 she worked as Procurement Project Manager in East Tallinn Central Hospital. She has also working experience from private sector (in the field of maritime) as Quality Manager 2011-2014 and in sale of medical devices as Office Manager from 2006 to 2011.
She holds a Master’s degree in Internal Security from Estonian Academy of Security Sciences.
Taimar Peterkop
Secretary of State, Government Office, Estonia
Mr. Taimar Peterkop was appointed Secretary of State in December 2018. Secretary of State is the Head of the Government Office (central government institution to support the Government and the Prime Minister in policy making and implementation).
Prior to being appointed Secretary of State, Taimar was Director General of the Estonian Information System Authority (government agency responsible for core e-government systems and cyber security of Estonia). Before that, he was the Deputy Secretary General for Legal and Administrative Affairs of the Ministry of Defence.
During the period 2000–2001, Peterkop worked as a lawyer at the Government Office and from 2001–2008, at the Ministry of Defence, the first four years of which was spent in the Legal Department as Head of the Office of International Law, and the last three years as Head of the Operations and Crisis Management Department. During the period 2008–2010, Peterkop served as Defence Counsellor at the Estonian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Taimar Peterkop is a graduate of the University of Tartu School of Law and the United States Army War College, and holds a Master’s level degree in Strategic Management.
Siobhan Benita
Event Moderator, Global Government Forum
Siobhan was a senior civil servant in the UK with more than 15 years’ Whitehall experience. She worked in many of major delivery departments, including Transport, Environment, Health and Local Government. She also had senior roles at the heart of government in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, including supporting the then Cabinet Secretary, Lord O’Donnell, to lead work on civil service reform and strategy. Siobhan left to run as an independent candidate in the Mayor of London election. She subsequently joined her alma mater, Warwick University, as Chief Strategy Officer of Warwick in London and Co-Director of the Warwick Policy Lab.
Alex Chisholm
Chief Operating Officer, Civil Service and Permanent Secretary, Cabinet Office, United Kingdom
Alex Chisholm became Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office in April 2020. Prior to that he was the Permanent Secretary to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Previous roles in government:
Stephen Burt
Chief Data Officer, Treasury Board Canada Secretariat, Canada
In March 2022, Stephen Burt was appointed Chief Data Officer for the Government of Canada, at the Treasury Board Secretariat. His mandate is to provide leadership across government on information and data governance and integration, privacy modernization, and data-enabled digital services and programs.
Prior to this appointment, Mr. Burt was the functional authority for data governance and analytics capability for the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF). He drove the analytics adoption and maturity throughout DND/CAF, and led the department-wide initiative to establish analytics and data governance.
Mr. Burt began his career in the Government of Canada in 1997 with Revenue Canada. In 1999, he joined DND, where he worked in a variety of policy, operational and defence intelligence roles, including two years as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Minister.
Mr. Burt moved to the Privy Council Office (PCO) in 2007 to work in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat as Senior Advisor on National Security. In that role, he was secretary for the committees of the National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister. In 2009, he joined the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat (IAS) at PCO, and held positions as Director for Afghanistan and, later, for Asia. Mr. Burt was appointed Director of Operations for the IAS in January 2012, and took on the position of Assistant Secretary on an acting basis in March 2014.
In April 2015, Mr. Burt assumed the role of Assistant Chief of Defence Intelligence at Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, where he led the federated production of intelligence within DND/CAF, and oversaw defence intelligence policy.
Mr. Burt has an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Ottawa, as well as a Master’s in Public Administration from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.
Andri Heiðar Kristinsson
Chief Executive Officer, Digital Iceland, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Iceland
Andri Heiðar Kristinsson is the CEO of Digital Iceland, a cross-functional unit within the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, tasked with leading the digital transformation across the Icelandic government. Mr. Kristinsson is a product and technology visionary with over two decades of experience working in technology and entrepreneurship in Europe and Silicon Valley.
Prior to joining Digital Iceland, Andri was a product lead at LinkedIn in San Francisco and a product manager for SlideShare‘s mobile apps. Andri also served as the CEO of Travelade, a travel technology startup, as well as the founder and CEO of Icelandic Startups, the leading startup accelerator in Iceland. Andri holds a B.Sc. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Iceland and an MBA from Stanford University.