Prof. Almas Heshmati

President

Almas Heshmati is Professor of Economics at Jönköping University. [expander_maker id=”1″ more=”Read more” less=”Read less”] He held similar positions at the Sogang University, Korea University, Seoul National University, University of Kurdistan Hawler, and the MTT Agrifood Research (Finland). [/expander_maker] He was a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), The United Nations University during 2001-2004. From 1998 until 2001, he was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics. He has a Ph.D. degree from the University of Gothenburg (1994), where he held a Senior Researcher position until 1998. His research interests include applied microeconomics, globalization, development strategy, efficiency, productivity, and growth with application to manufacturing and services. In addition to more than 200 scientific journal articles, he has published books on the EU Lisbon Process, Global Inequality, East Asian Manufacturing, the Chinese Economy, Technology Transfer, Information Technology, Water Resources, Landmines, Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Development Economics, World Values, Poverty, well-being and Economic Growth. He has conducted research for governments and NGOs related to economics, higher education, and well-being.

Awat Najmaddin

Vice President

Awat is a seasoned and motivated public official currently works as a director general at the Iraqi Presidency, specializing in fostering positive relations among coworkers. Awat holds a bachelor degree in electrical engineering (1987-1991) from Almustansiriya University in Baghdad with over 25 years in both public and private sectors, Awat has experience in management consultation, team building, professional development, and strategic implementation. He also worked in the media and pursued different positions such as general director in two broadcasting corporations, and a member of the trustees board in the Iraqi media and communication commission (MCC).

Dr. Lars Hartvigson

Member

Lars Hartvigson is presently working as Director of International Development Cooperation at Jönköping International Business School at Jönköping University, Sweden. He has been into international partnership programs since the late 1980-ies working with funding, designing, managing, implementing, reporting, and evaluating such programs in various development sectors. For the last fifteen years, he has been responsible for international partnerships with some prominent African Universities in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Mozambique developing their capacity to train PhDs in the disciplines of management and economics. In addition, Lars has designed and implemented inclusive and participatory leadership programs for senior managers within the civil society in Southeast Europe and Ethiopia. In post-war former Yugoslavia countries, an intervention was designed and implemented to address capacity building among young people using partnerships between Swedish universities and Local universities to train young people in leadership and conflict transformation. This intervention later became a UN best practice working with young people. Lars Hartvigson has been working in a variety of countries and cultural contexts and are familiar with funding and reporting systems and mechanisms used by most funding agencies. Lars Hartvigson has taken a particular interest in inclusive and participatory approaches to achieve sustainable results and to link sustainable outcomes with necessary policy adaptation.

Dr. Hamed Alavi

Member

Hamed Alavi is an expert in Management and Law. His career path can be divided into three different phases of humanitarian activities, business development and academia. He started his journey in Iran as team leader with UNHCR and Assistant to Voter Education Officer with IOM. In 2005 he joined Schering AG, the German pharmaceutical company as Area Manager in Tehran, Iran. Three years later in Georgia, he entered the academic world with Caucasus University as International Project Director and Faculty Member. Ever since, he is an active academician, researcher and consultant in Europe and the Middle East. Among others, he worked with Caucasus Business School (Georgia), Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), Riga Business School (Latvia), Thomas More University (Belgium), Lazarski University (Poland), Warsaw University of Economics (Poland), Donetsk State University of Management (Ukraine), AkDeniz University (Turkey) and University of Kurdistan Hawler (Erbil, Kurdistan, Iraq). He holds a PhD in Management from Estonian Business School, Estonia. PhD in Law from Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. LLM in Maritime and Energy Law from University of Oslo, Norway. LLM in International Trade Law from University of Torino, Italy. Advanced Master in European and International Studies from CIFE France. MBA with Specialization in International Management together with Executive Diploma in Management Consulting from Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France and Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Azad University Iran. His  areas of interest are mostly interdisciplinary and can be summarized but not limited to: International Business and law, Trade Finance, Supply Chain Finance, Project Finance, Energy, Education, Sustainable Development and Advocacy.