Yōko Kamikawa is a Japanese politician and former think-tank researcher, currently serving as the Minister of Justice since September 2020. Kamikawa is highly engaged in Arctic affairs currently also serving as the Chief Secretary of the Parliamentary League of Arctic Frontier Study. Kamikawa has previously served as Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs in the cabinets of Shinzō Abe and Yasuo Fukuda.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson served as President of Iceland for twenty years, 1996-2016; elected five times in nationwide elections. Previously, he was Minister of Finance, Member of Parliament, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the first Professor of Political Science at the University of Iceland. He now serves as Chairman of Arctic Circle, which he founded in 2013 with various Arctic partners. The Arctic Circle Assembly held in Iceland every October has become the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. Arctic Circle also organizes specialized Forums in other countries; so far, in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Before and after his presidency, President Grímsson has worked closely with members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate as well as with many key members of governments in European countries. For decades, he has been an active participant in the global climate dialogue and during his Presidency and in recent years initiated and promoted clean energy projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and the Americas; especially using Icelandic achievements and technologies as a model. He was the Chairman of a commission established by IRENA on the new geopolitics emerging from global renewable energy transformation. Grímsson served on the Advisory Board of Sustainable Energy for All, created by the United Nations and the World Bank. In addition to devoting his post-presidential efforts to the three areas of climate, the Arctic and clean energy, Grímsson is also involved in international cooperation on the oceans and the evolution of sustainable use of marine resources.

President Grímsson has received many international awards, including the Nehru Award for International Understanding, presented to him by the President of India.

Atsushi Sunami is the President of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He is also Director of the SciREX center and Executive Advisor to the President at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Guest Professor at the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation at Waseda University. He is currently serving as a member of the Basic Policy Group under the Committee on National Space Policy in the Cabinet Office, also as Chair of the Space Utilization Promotion Round-table under the Minister for Space Policy in the Cabinet Office. In addition, he is a member of the Innovation Strategy for Security and Safety at the Cabinet Office and on the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and a member of the Arctic Circle Advisory Board. He holds a BSFS from Georgetown University and an MIA and PhD in Political Science from Columbia University.

Mr. Kei Koizumi is the Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, currently serving as Acting Director. He was previously Senior Advisor for Science Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In the Obama- Biden administration, Mr. Koizumi was Assistant Director for Federal Research & Development and Senior Advisor to the National Science and Technology Council at OSTP. Before then, he was the Director of the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he is from Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Koizumi is a graduate of Boston University and George Washington University.

Dr. Hinzman is the Assistant Director of Polar Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy and the Executive Director of the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. He recently
served as the Vice Chancellor for Research and as a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at
the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Hinzman served as the Director of the UAF International Arctic
Research Center from 2007 to 2015. Professor Hinzman’s primary research interests involve permafrost
hydrology. He conducted hydrological and meteorological field studies in the Alaskan Arctic
continuously for over 35 years while frequently collaborating on complementary research in the Russian
and Canadian Arctic.