Expert Group

Torbjörn Becker is Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) at the Stockholm School of Economics, a position he holds in parallel to board positions at several research institutes such as the Kyiv School of Economics and Swedish Institute of International Affairs. Prior to his role at SITE, Torbjörn worked with the IMF in Washington D.C., with his work focusing on emerging markets and developing countries in Eastern Europe and Russia. He completed his PhD in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics and continues to undertake research in subjects such as macroeconomics, debt management and fiscal policy.

Malin Oud has 25 years’ experience in the field of human rights, rule of law and sustainable development with her work focusing primarily on China. She is currently Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law’s Stockholm Office, having initially joined the Institute in 2001 as Director of the Beijing Office. Oud has worked as programme manager and advisor in both the public and private sector, including at Sida, the OHCHR and the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights. Oud is a Member of the Advisory Boards of Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and the Hong Kong-based NGO China Labour Bulletin and was chair of the Swedish Government and Civil Society Working Group to Strengthen Dialogue and Collaboration in Development Cooperation in 2018-2023. Oud holds a Master in International Development from Melbourne University.

Staffan I. Lindberg is a founding Principal Investigator and Director of Varieties of Democracy, Professor of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg, Wallenberg Academy Fellow, and awardee of an ERC Consolidator Grant. His research appears in over 100 academic publications, on issues such as elections and democratization, accountability, egalitarian democracy, clientelism, sequence analysis methods, women’s representation, voting behavior and the Ghanaian legislature. Lindberg also has extensive experience as consultant and as advisor to international organizations.

Andreas Wladis is a general surgeon with extensive experience from disaster, low-resource, and humanitarian contexts. He is a Professor in Disaster Medicine and Traumatology at Linköping University and holds a PhD from the Karolinska Institute. Andreas served with Médecins Sans Frontières as a surgeon in Haiti following the earthquake in 2010 and has done multiple missions for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to various conflict zones. He was Chief Surgeon for the ICRC from 2017 to 2019. Most recently he served as medical expert for the EU External Action Service in Brussels.

Anders Pedersen is International Director of the Swedish Red Cross, having joined the organisation after a long career spanning the UN, Sida and the Swedish diplomatic service. He was the UN Resident Coordinator, appointed by the Secretary General and leading the UN’s operational activities, in both Botswana and Jordan, working with both development and humanitarian aid. Anders has served as Chief of Staff in Sida’s Office of the Director General, alongside other leadership roles. As both a diplomat and international civil servant he has worked in a range of countries such as Zambia and Angola.

Åsa Regnér is since August 2023 secretary general of Save the Children. She has extensive experience of working with human rights and children's rights issues and has held several different leading positions both in politics and in civil society, in Sweden and internationally. Between 2018 and 2023, she was Deputy Secretary-General of the UN and Deputy Chief Executive of the UN agency UN Women. Between 2014 and 2018 she was Sweden's Minister for Children, the Elderly and Gender Equality, where she was, among other things, responsible for the work to make the Convention on the Rights of the Child into law in Sweden in 2020.

Katarina Tracz is a security and defence analyst and strategic communications advisor. She has fifteen years of experience in foreign and security policy analysis, with a particular focus on the Nordic-Baltic region, Ukraine, and transatlantic security. She is co-founder of the think tank Stockholm Free World Forum. Today, Katarina Tracz runs the company Solomós Communications, of which she is the founder and CEO. Her previous positions include Director of the think tank Stockholm Free World Forum, Marshall Memorial Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington DC and International Research Fellow at The McCain Institute for International Leadership, Washington DC. She holds a BA in Political Science from Stockholm University and Sciences-Po de Paris and has taken advanced courses at Columbia University in New York and the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm.

Jenny Deschamps-Berger is Head of the Analysis Support Division at the Centre for Total Defence and Societal Security at the Swedish Defence University. She has a good knowledge of evaluation, security and defence policy and now works primarily with issues of defence readiness and resilience. She has previously been a subject expert at the Prime Minister's Office for Crisis Management and expert support in the Council for Support and Coordination after the tsunami disaster. Jenny holds a Master's degree in Political Science from Södertörn University.