Keynote Speakers
Executive Director Keith Devlin, Stanford University, H-STAR Institute, USA
Dr. Keith Devlin is a co-founder and Executive Director of the
university's H-STAR institute, a co-founder of the Stanford Media X
research network, and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He is a World
Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the use of
different media to teach and communicate mathematics to diverse
audiences. He also works on the design of information/reasoning systems
for intelligence analysis. Other research interests include: theory of
information, models of reasoning, applications of mathematical
techniques in the study of communication, and mathematical cognition. He
has written 28 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient
of the Pythagoras Prize, the Peano Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and the
Joint Policy Board for Mathematics Communications Award. In 2003, he
was recognized by the California State Assembly for his "innovative work
and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to
logic and linguistics." He is "the Math Guy" on National Public Radio.
Associate Professor Jukka M. Laitamaki, New York University, USA
Dr. Laitamaki is a global expert in strategy, marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship with special focus on international hotel, hospitality and tourism industries. He has 30 years of international strategic consulting and executive education experience in over 20 countries and six continents. He has worked as a strategic management consultant with Service Management Group and McKinsey & Co and as a professor at U.C. Berkeley, Fordham University and New York University. His clients include international hotel, hospitality, tourism, travel, retail, technology and financial services companies as well as higher education and government organizations including Finnish Tourist Board and Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry which he advised on industrial policy and international competitive strategies.
Dr. Laitamaki’s research has been published in several international conferences and journals including the European Management Journal, the California Management Review and the Journal of Transnational Management. At Fordham University Dr. Laitamaki built and directed the Global Professional MBA (GPMBA) Program with 140 students from more than 40 countries. Newsweek recognized GPMBA as one of the top seven international MBA Programs in the USA. At New York University Dr. Laitamaki lectures, consults and conducts applied research in the areas of global strategy, strategic brand management, customer and brand experience management, entrepreneurship and competitive benchmarking. His most recent research on perceived authenticity of tourism products was chosen as the Keynote Paper for the 2010 Academy of World Business Management and Marketing Development Conference. He is a contributor on tourism policy, crises management and global competitive strategies of tourism destinations for the text book Travel and Tourism: An Industry Primer by Prentice Hall.
Professor Yngve Troye Nordkvelle, Lillehammer University College, Norway
Dr. Yngve Troye Nordkvelle is an educator who carried out
most of his initial research work in the field of international
education and development education. He focused on social studies
textbooks and how they portray the “Third World”. A book, “The global
school”, was issued in 1994. His second field of interest, research in
comparative education, has dealt with issues in education relating to
the Southern Africa, but also in a Nordic and Northern European context.
His most recent research is in the area of distance education and the
history of education.
He has been a member of the board of the Nordic Association
of Educational Research, and he directed a Centre for Media education at
the college for some years. He is in charge of training newly employed
colleagues in methods of teaching and learning. I addition, he edits two
journals: one e-journal called Seminar.net and a paper journal: UNIPED.