Team
Decades of geostrategic research and expertise.
The Geostrat team has cumulated knowledge, contacts and expertise from governmental and public research institutions as well as from the private sector. We are committed to increasing geostrategic awareness in the private sector and to bring solutions to the market, which enable companies to manage geopolitical risk better and to capture geostrategic opportunities.
Managing Director
Dr. Christian Fjäder
Christian has a PhD in International Relations from the University of Sydney, MBA from Bond University, Master of Arts (International Relations) and Bachelor of International Studies from Flinders University, Australia
Christian Fjäder has two decades of experience in leadership, research and consulting in corporate, national and international aspects of risk and resilience. Through working in the corporate sector, government, with international organisations and academia, Christian has a diverse set of knowledge and skills to work at all levels of resilience.
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Head of Strategic Foresight
Johannes Koponen
Johannes Koponen is a seasoned expert in foresight and platform business models with 12 years of experience helping public and private sector clients use foresight for strategic decision-making. He has published two books on the topic of the platform society and business models, and is currently developing the award-winning, AI-enhanced platform "Konsensus" for informed decision making.
Prior to his current role, Johannes led foresight projects at Demos Helsinki, taught at Aalto University, and founded two successful startups. He also brings a deep understanding of communication and media research, futures studies, and product and service innovation to his work. Johannes is a respected voice in the field and a member of the Finnish Council for mass media
Advisor
Jens Hillebrand Pohl
Jens Hillebrand Pohl writes and lectures at the intersection of international economic law and politics. An experienced attorney having practiced before U.S. federal and state courts in New York and for EU institutions, Jens researches the (geo)politicization of the legal order. Jens’ Ph.D. in law at Maastricht University is about judicial deference to executive power in national security cases, and he pursues a second Ph.D. in political science at Tampere University on ‘lawfare’ and the (mis)use of the legal system as an instrument of geostrategic power. Jens is a Ph.D. Fellow of the Institute for Globalization and International Regulation (IGIR) at Maastricht University. He is also adjunct faculty at the United Nations University, an advisory editor of the Yearbook of Socio-Economic Constitutions, published by Springer Nature, and a former article editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He has held visiting appointments at the Max Planck Institute for Procedural Law, T.M.C. Asser Institute, and the World Trade Institute. He holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and a MSc in Economics and Business from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Advisor
Edward Hunter Christie
Edward Hunter Christie is an Advisor with Geostrat. An economist by training, with degrees from the University of Geneva and the London School of Economics, he has held a succession of roles in applied economic research, as a senior advisor and Chief Economist for a major European industry association, and as Defence Economist at NATO. He then served as Deputy Head of NATO's Innovation Unit and played a key role in the early development of NATO policies on emerging technologies and on Artificial Intelligence. He also spent a year as Senior Research Fellow with the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) and joined Geostrat as an advisor in March 2023.
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Advisor
Dr. Mikael Wigell
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Mikael Wigell 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.
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He is now the Research Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor in International Political Economy at the University of Tampere. He is also a World Economic Forum Expert, currently curating the WEF's Geoeconomics section. He has previously been Member of the Development Policy Committee of the Finnish Government and President of the Finnish International Studies Association. He is a pioneer in geoeconomics and hybrid threats analytics and he has written a number of policy reports for the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Government of Finland, as well as a number of briefings for organisations such as the World Economic Forum, th Japan Development Bank and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. He led the International Business Risk and Resilience Monitor-project funded by the European Commission, as well as the Nordic Security of Supply in a Age of Disruption-project funded by the Nordic Counsil of Ministers. His latest book is as editor of the volume Geo-economics and PowerPolitics in the 21st Century: The Revival of Economic Statecraft (Routledge, 2018; 2020).
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Advisor
Dr. Harri Mikkola
Harri Mikkola received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Tampere, Finland (2013).
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He now serves as a Programme Director at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), where he leads the Finnish Foreign Policy, Northern European Security and NATO research programme. His fields of expertise include geostrategy in the Northern Europe with a special focus on the Arctic, Finnish foreign, defence and security policy, hybrid influencing, societal resilience, security of supply as well as defence market issues. Mikkola has previously worked at the Finnish Defence Command, at the University of Tampere, Finland, and as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Minnesota, USA. Mikkola has also been a Board member of the Arctic Society of Finland.
Advisor
Dr. Christian Pfeiffer
Christian obtained a PhD in International Affairs and Political Economy from the University of St.Gallen (HSG), Master of Arts in International Affairs from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and a Bachelor of Laws in European Law from the University of Maastricht.
Christian Pfeiffer has previously worked as a Public Affairs, Policy, and Communications Consultant in Zurich. He has experience in creating strategies for and with multinational corporations, analyzing the direct and indirect impacts of national and EU initiatives and legislation on corporate strategy and business, and representing companies’ interests against the legislature and executive.
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Besides his role as Geostrat’s Head of Corporate Geoeconomics Programme, Christian is also Deputy Director of the Zukunft-Fabrik.2050, a future-oriented think tank. There he promotes system thinking on long-term issues, fosters dialogue on positive but realistic visions for the future and carries out impact projects to accelerate transformation through entrepreneurship and innovation.
Christian´s PhD deals with the topic of geoeconomics in IR, a research to be published by Routledge.
Advisor
Dr. Heiko Borchert
Heiko Borchert studied international relations, business administration, economics, and law at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), where he also received his PhD.
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He owns and manages Borchert Consulting & Research AG, a strategic affairs consulting boutique. Since 1997 he has managed close to 120 consulting and study projects for public and private sector clients covering a diverse set of issues like critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, defense cooperation, energy and resource supply security, hybrid threats, maritime security as well as geostrategic and geoeconomic risks. He has also been actively involved in setting up multinational defense technology consortia and played an instrumental role in several defense export campaigns. Heiko Borchert is also Co-Director of the Defense AI Observatory at Helmut Schmidt University/ University of the Federal Armed Forces, Associate Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), subject matter expert at the Hague Center for Strategic Studies (HCSS) and member of the advisory boards of Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik and The Defence Horizon Journal. His latest book as editor (with Johann Strobl) is Storms Ahead: The Future Geoeconomic World Order (Vienna Raiffeisen Bank, 2021). He joined Geostrat as an advisor in March 2023.