Bi Puranen

Bi Puranen is the founder of Frontplaces and is Secretary General of the World Values Survey Association. She is also Research Director of Bikupan, an organization specialising in research, business intelligence and communication. Clients include public sector organizations, universities and NGO's, as well as private sector companies.
As a Professor of Future Studies and Communication Strategies and an Associate Professor in Economic History, Bi works in the international arena and is a well known speaker in the field of values, networking, and communication. She is also working as a consultant to international Corporations like: Ericsson, Nokia, Investor, Akzo-Nobel, ING-Group, Volvo and Trema.
Bi, who is Swedish, sits on several boards of national authorities and companies. She currently holds a PhD in Philosophy, speaks Swedish, English and French, see www.bikupan.se for an extensive CV.

Francine L. Gittins

Francine L. Gittins is well recognised as a developer of strategies for worldwide marketing and management of large-scale communications projects; most recently as head of Marketing for a leading European supplier of media delivery solutions on the Internet and Intranets located in Sophia Antipolis, France. Her wide experience in the marketing arena includes assignments from Silicon Valley, California to high-technology enterprises and start-ups in Canada and Europe.

As a Marketing consultant for the EU, she demonstrated to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises how new Information Technologies promote new revenue streams. While working in California, Francine promoted alliances between key business leaders such as: LucasFilms, Brøderbund, Autodesk, Hewlett Packard, American Express and others to develop and market collaborative public policy strategy to enhance regional economy and quality of life.

Francine currently holds an MBA in International Marketing and as a French Canadian speaks French and English fluently.

Advisory Board

Christer Asplund, Manging Director, Economic Develoment Agency, City of Stockholm

Pierre Belanger, Director of Laval Technopole, Quebec, Canada

Christian Cabrol, Commercial Director - Sophia Antipolis, SAEM (Société Anonyme d'Economie Mixte)

Kaj Hed, CEO Trema, Sophia Antipolis, France

Gerlinde Herrmann, the Herrmann Group, Toronto, Canada

Gunnar Hesse, CEO Unisys, Europe

Francois Kester, Director of CAD (Cote d'Azur Développement), Nice Jacques Gros, Director EMEA IBM, France

Elizabeth Kihlbom, Atos Consulting, Sweden/France Berne Landgren, Senior Vice President, Telia, Sweden

Britt Reigo, Senior Vice President, People and Culture, Ericsson

Goran Trogen, Director General Almega, Sweden

Michel Wlodarczyk, Chambre de Commerce Francais en Suède