SPEAKER AND MEDIA PANEL

The New Security Foundation maintains a database of experienced speakers, presenters and commentators with an in-depth knowledge of a range of security, defence, intelligence and foreign policy issues. The NSF speaker and media panel includes:

Dr Harold Elletson, Chairman, The New Security Foundation

Dr Elletson is an experienced public speaker and presenter. A former Member of the British Parliament, Dr Elletson served both as a member of the select committee on Environment and as Parliamentary Secretary in the Northern Ireland Office during the early stages of the ‘peace process.’ After leaving Parliament, he worked as an adviser to companies doing business in the former Soviet Union before establishing the NATO Forum on Business and Security and the New Security Foundation. A gifted linguist, he is happy to speak at or take part in conferences in English, French, Russian and German. Recent conferences he has chaired or spoken at include:

• The NATO Forum on Business and Security, Berlin 2003, Chairman
• The NATO Forum on Business and Security, Istanbul 2004, Chairman
• The New Security Forum, Riga, 2005, Chairman
• The NATO Forum on Energy Security, Prague 2005, Speaker
• New York University Roundtable on Emergency Preparedness, Florence, 2006, Speaker
• ASIS European Conference, Nice 2006, Keynote Speaker
• European Cultural Centre Conference on the UN, Delphi 2006, Speaker
• Roundtable on Technology Assisted Learning in the Fight Against Aids, Nairobi, 2007
• E-Learning for Defence and Security, Berlin, 2007, Chairman
• Online Educa, Berlin 2007, Chairman of opening plenary
• Joint conference with UK Defence Academy on ‘Cultural Autonomy,’ Shrivenham 2008, co-Chairman
• African ICT Best Practices Forum, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2008, Chairman of workshops, closing plenary session (with Khalil Gueye) and question and answer meeting for African ICT ministers with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
• Workshop on ICT and HIV/AIDS, E-Learning Africa, Accra, Ghana, 2008, Chairman
• Workshop on ‘Post-Conflict Distance Learning’, E-Learning Africa, Dakar, Senegal, 2009, Chairman

Publications by Dr Elletson inlcude ‘The General Against the Kremlin’ (Little Brown 1998) and ‘Baltic Independence and Russian Foreign Energy Policy’ (GMB Publications, 2006).

Dr Elletson is happy to speak on topics including security, intelligence, defence, environment and foreign policy. A particular speciality is the new security environment and its implications for civil society.

Andrew Janis Folkmanis, Deputy Chairman, The New Security Foundation

Andrew Janis Folkmanis is an engineer and economist, a high-level adviser and organiser of policy, projects, agendas and events, mainly in Europe and in “New Europe” (the new EU member states).

He was adviser to the President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, until her second term ended in 2007.  He is an official of the European Commission on temporary leave and has been Brussels-based since 1988. 
His expertise covers a number of European policy areas;

• energy, he was negotiator for the Baltic States and Poland in 1998/99 of EU Accession for the “energy chapter”, subsequently Head of Secretariat for Baltic Sea Energy Cooperation (BASREC),
• transport, he has worked in projects related to railways, aviation, logistics and intermodality, in 2000 and 2001 was Secretary on civil/military cooperation to the High-Level Group for a Single European Sky,
• IT/telecom, team leader at the European Commission for the IT research (Information Management) programme of the EU’s Framework Programme,
• military systems, consultant and team leader in NATO projects in the 1980’s,
• new media and internet for schools, project leader for the Web for Schools project, the EU’s contribution to stimulating internet in schools in the mid-1990’s,
• environment, consultant and adviser on the climate change agenda,
• the European idea, representing the President of Latvia in debates on European values, as part of the preparation of the European Convention, member of the European Movement, President of the Unification Network,
• governance, of states, companies and markets, of European institutions, of European programmes, the single European market – critique and reflection,
• relations with Russia and eastern Europe, numerous committees and debating circles, including contributions in the press, since 1990.

In these functions he has presented at public or in-camera events regularly, participating in conferences and seminars as keynote speaker, speaker, chairman, moderator or rapporteur.  He has been interviewed on television and radio in Latvia, Estonia, Germany, US and UK, articles in the press. 

In the New Security Foundation Andrew Janis Folkmanis is Deputy Chairman and focuses primarily on economic or related issues, including cybersecurity, energy security, transport security, environmental security, but also on foreign policy challenges, in particular related to eastern Europe.

To contact any of the above speakers or for details of other members of the New Security Foundation Speaker Panel, please contact us at info@newsecurityfoundation.org