Ms Kristin Hansen serves as Minister Counselor at Embassy of Norway in Washington DC, heading the Embassy’s work on Economic affairs. She is a career diplomat and has held various positions in the foreign service, working with issues ranging from security policy, UN affairs, European policy and trade. She has previously been posted to Warsaw, Poland. Before her current posting, she held the position as Director for Trade Policy and International Economy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was responsible for Norway’s trade policy, including Norway’s role and positions in the WTO and in the OECD. Before joining the foreign service, she worked for Schibsted Media Group. She holds a master’s degree in International Political Economy from London School of Economics.

Matthew Nygaard, CMT, is a Trader for Quiet Light Securities, LLC where he provides daily technical analysis commentary on the US index and WTI Crude markets, and he is responsible for hedging the delta exposure and trading the electronic option markets for the firm’s ES/SPX trading group.  Matt has been with the firm since 2004, and he has 26 years of experience in trading the financial markets.  He is the Treasurer for the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago, and he is the Co-Chair for the CMT Association Chicago Chapter.  Matt holds degrees from the University of Chicago AB '91, MBA '94, and he has a Chartered Market Technician designation.

Kirk Samson, JD MBA is the head of Samson Atlantic LLC, a consulting firm which provides companies with expert global market research and political risk analysis.  A former U.S. diplomat, his writings on global trade and political risk issues have been published by Gallup, Global Trade Magazine, the European Business Magazine, and in Global Risk Insights.  Kirk is a Director at the International Trade Association of Greater Chicago and the Vice President of the Norwegian American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago.  Kirk also holds a staff position at Northwestern University negotiating with corporations and foundations in support of international research efforts.