Mikael Wigell is Research Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), where he previously was Programme Director of the Global Security Programme. He is also Adjunct Professor in International Political Economy at Tampere University and a World Economic Forum Expert, currently curating the WEF’s Geoeconomics section. He earned his PhD at the London School of Economics, and he has been a Visiting Fellow at the Changing Character of War Centre, Oxford University. He has been a Member of the Development Policy Committee of the Finnish Government and President of the Finnish International Studies Association. He is an international pioneer in geoeconomic and hybrid threats analytics, and his work has been published in top-ranked academic journals such as International Affairs, World Development, The Washington Quarterly, and Comparative Strategy.

Prior he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and the Director for Policy Planning and Analysis at the National Emergency Supply Agency (NESA) in Finland, the lead agency in economic resilience, with responsibilities in strategy development, international relations, analysis, and research coordination. He also has extensive corporate experience in security, risk, and resilience leadership in regional and global leadership roles. He has for instance, headed Nokia’s regional corporate security function in the Asia Pacific region and the corporate resilience functions as the Global Head of Risk and Resilience. Christian is a frequent speaker at international high-level security gatherings and conferences, e.g., in the European Union, NATO, and the OECD High-Level Risk Forum (HLRF). Christian has a PhD in International Relations from the University of Sydney, an MBA from Bond University, and a MA (International Relations) from Flinders University, Australia. Christian has also published scholarly articles in international security, geoeconomics, resilience, and strategic risk.