Keynote Speakers
Professor Wolfgang Drechsler PhD SocScD
Professor of Governance at TalTech’s Ragnar Nurkse Department, Honorary Professor of University College London in the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose, and Associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, wolfgang.drechsler@taltech.ee
At UCL, he is also Principal Investigator of a large project on ‘Islamic Public Value’ (Templeton Foundation).An Honorary Member of NISPAcee, he is a former Steering Committee member, recipient of the inaugural Alena Brunovsk? Award and the Merit Award, and founding editor of the NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy.
From 2020 to 2023, Wolfgang served as chair of EAPAA, the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation. In civil service, he has been Advisor to the President of Estonia, Executive Secretary with the German Wissenschaftsrat, and, as an APSA Congressional Fellow, Senior Legislative Analyst in the United States Congress.
His main interests are Non-Western Public Administration (Buddhist, Islamic, and Confucian); Public Administration, Technology and Innovation; and Public Management Reform generally.
Wolfgang’s last book,How to make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation needs Bureaucracy (with Rainer Kattel and Erkki Karo, Yale University Press), won the Academy of Management’s 2023 Terry Award for “the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the lat two years”
Prof PS Reddy
Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy is an Emeritus Professor and subnational government specialist in the School of Management, IT and Governance at the University of Kwazulu Natal, in Durban, South Africa, Reddyp1@ukzn.ac.za
He has served as the Vice – President : Programmes; member of the Board of Management and founding Project Director of the Working Group on Sub – national Governance and Development of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) (Brussels).
He has also served on an IASIA – UNDESA Taskforce for Effective Public Administration at the Local Level for the Achievement of the MDGs. In 2014, he received the Donald Stone Award for being “A Distinguished International Scholar/Practitioner” and for his “Contribution Towards Advancing the Wellbeing of IASIA”. Prof Reddy is currently the Vice - Chairperson of the Policy and Programme Committee (PRAC) of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) (Brussels). He has also served as a full/alternate board member of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) (London), representing universities and research organisations.
Prof Reddy is a rated researcher with the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa and previously served on its specialist committee representing the Discipline of Public Administration. He has published extensively nationally and internationally and is the editor/co – editor of twenty one books and currently serves on the editorial/advisory committee of seven journals. Prof Reddy has also served as an elected member of the University of Kwazulu – Natal Council representing academic staff.