Former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine (2026) Colonel of police PhD Chief Digital Transformation Officer of the MIA of Ukraine Responsible for 112 emergency service in Ukraine

Ross MacLeod works for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), helping lead partnership, advocacy and communications to prevent drowning across the UK and Ireland. He has led the development of the Float to Live campaign, and is also deputy chair of Water Safety England.

Dr Jorian (Jo) Kippax is a Retrieval Consultant with Ambulance Tasmania’s Critical Care and Retrieval Service (AT-CCR), a Trauma Specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital, a reservist officer in the Australian Defence Force.

Dr. Sarah Spelsberg is a Senior Associate Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Mayo Clinic Florida, Director of US Field operations for World Extreme Medicine and Medical Director for Project NEPTUNE 100 

For over two decades, Dave Weber has worked as a rescue technician, remote site medic, rescue helicopter manager, and skills instructor. He is the owner of the Mountain Rescue Collective, LLC, a technical training and rescue program assessment firm.

Sea kayaking has been my passion for the past 15 years. During that time, I have gained a wide range of qualifications in kayak guiding and instruction. I have paddled around Iceland and Ireland and led numerous expeditions in different parts of the world.

Dr Mallinson is a member of Assynt Mountain Rescue Team in the Scottish highlands and a prehospital doctor in Scotland.

I have worked in the ambulance service since 2004 and for the last 11 years I have worked as an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner in Critical Care with the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust. During this time I have also worked for Magpas Air Ambulance and London's Air Ambulance. My career has given me many opportunities to develop and learn. 

Fredrik Eide is Key Account Manager for Defence, Police and SAR at Hansen Protection. His background includes service in the Norwegian Armed Forces, international deployments, and operational experience from fire and rescue services. T
Erling Høydahl is Head of Sales Personal Protection Nordic at Hansen Protection. His background includes service in the Norwegian Coast Guard, qualification as a professional diver, and extensive experience supporting defence, maritime, search and rescue, and emergency response organisations across the Nordic region.

Zagor works as a Quality Engineer and Product Advisor at Flashgroup in the Netherlands. Flashgroup is a leading developer of virtual reality training solutions for emergency responders worldwide.

Jacques van der Ent is Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Flashgroup in the Netherlands. Flashgroup is a leading developer of virtual reality training solutions for emergency responders worldwide.

Stephan Mantler leads the work within Vatnajokull National Park regarding tourist safety on glaciers. He also leads corresponding work on Solheimar glacier.

Karl Birgir Björnsson is the CEO and co-founder of Hefring Marine, an Icelandic company developing intelligent systems to optimise and analyse vessel operations. Since founding the company in 2019, he has led its growth from concept to international scale-up, with customers across defence, commercial, and unmanned maritime sectors. 

Arnar is Sales Manager at BRP Ellingsen and a member of the Reykjavík Air Ground Rescue Team, where he has served with the team’s snowmobile unit for the past 25 years.

Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir has many years of experience leading expeditions in high-altitude mountain environments and polar regions. She has led expeditions in the Himalayas and across the Greenland Ice Sheet, skied solo to the South Pole, and worked in Antarctica as a camp manager and in safety-related roles. 

A father of two and now proud granddad of two, Ari's love of speed in the rough yielded a couple of local rally racing titles early in adult life. He's worked in automotive sales, teaching, journalism, tourism and more, generally combining cars and human relations.

Scott Hammond is an explorer, search dog handler, and author who lives and works in America’s Rocky Mountains.  He teaches at Utah State University and is an incident commander for the Utah County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Team, a Mountain Rescue Association (MRA) team in the United States that does over 100 call-outs per year. Boo, a Golden Retriever, is his incredible search dog. When he’s not writing or teaching or rescuing lost people, he’s swimming, hiking, or telling stories to his grandchildren.  

Piia Kallas is Chair of the Board and CEO of Päästeliit, the Estonian Rescue Association. She has extensive leadership experience from both the public-sector business environment and voluntary emergency services, including 13 years on the board of Estonia’s state-owned real estate company Riigi Kinnisvara AS. S

Friðrik Jónas Friðriksson heads the regional search and rescue command in southeast Iceland. He works as an electrician in Höfn í Hornafirði and also serves as a part-time emergency medical technician.

Ragna og Hákon eru systkini sem hafa um árabil starfað með Hjálparsveit skáta í Kópavogi.  Systkinin starfa nú saman sem sviðsstjórar Hamfarasviðs Landsbjargar, þar sem þau sameina reynslu sína af björgunarstörfum og heilbrigðisþjónustu. 

Jón Svanberg Hjartarson is the CEO of Neyðarlínan (112). He has worked in emergency response and civil protection for many years, including as Executive Director of ICE-SAR (the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue), a specialist with the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management under the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police, and a police officer in the Westfjords.

Frímann is a police sergeant with the South Iceland Police. He has specialised in the use of drones in civil protection and law enforcement.

Róbert is a computer scientist and a member of the Garðabær Search and Rescue Team, where he also works as a software developer. He has specialised in drone technology and the development of software solutions for the use of drones in search and rescue operations.

Sveinn Gauti is an environmental engineer and a member of the Garðabær Search and Rescue Team. He works for Veðurvaktin and Reykjavik University. He has specialised in drone technology and the development of software solutions for the use of drones in search and rescue operations.

Magnús Stefán Sigurðsson is a member of the HSSR rescue team in Reykjavík, specialising in swiftwater and mountain rescue. He has been a member of ICE-SAR for 20 years and has worked as a swiftwater rescue instructor since 2014. Outside rescue work, Magnús is an avid photographer.

Brock Jenkins is a student doctor, critical care flight paramedic, and Fellow of Extreme and Wilderness Medicine. Drawing on experience spanning high-altitude rescue in the Colorado Rockies to humanitarian missions in Haiti, Palestine, and Ukraine, he specializes in rural retrieval, clinical education, and prehospital POCUS.

Claudia Potok and Evan Gamble are members of the SAR Alberta Geomatics Working Group. Claudia has previously served as Operations Director and is currently a Search Manager with Calgary Search and Rescue Association.

Ragnar is Head of Geographical Information Systems at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, a glacier terminus surveyor and landowner in Reykjarfjörður, and a member of the Hafnarfjörður Rescue Team

Hrafnhildur is a glaciologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, vice chair of the Icelandic Glaciological Society, a member of the Reykjavík Scout Rescue Team, and knows of few things better than being up on a glacier.

Gestur Gunnarsson is a clinical psychologist and one of the founders and owners of R+ Behavioral Management Consulting.

Þorbjörg Petrea Pálsdóttir has been a member of the Ársæll Search and Rescue Team and has served in Icelandic search and rescue since 2008.Following the volcanic unrest in Grindavík, she served as an Operations Manager within the Field Command, with the objective of ensuring continuity of operations in the affected area. In this role, she gained extensive experience in incident management, decision-making under pressure, and coordinating field operations.

Halldór Kristinsson is a captain on the all weather lifeboat Björg on Snæfellsnes. 

Been in SAR for over 40 years in the field , Search Manager, director of training, Head of SAR department, financial manager and working in UNDAC for the Untied Nations. 

Sigurður Ingi Hauksson has served as Head of Radio Networks at Neyðarlínan (the Icelandic 112 services) since 2016, where his responsibilities include the operation of the TETRA network and the Icelandic Maritime Monitoring service (Vaktstöð siglinga). 

I am a viola player in the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, a guide and a great nature enthusiast.

My father, Jon Sigurgeirsson (1909-2000) was among the rescuers that saved the crew of Geysir, the airplane that crashed at Vatnajökull in 1950. It has been my passion to tell my fathers tale from this expedition and I build my lecture on his diaries and articles.

We are members of the Sæbjörg Search and Rescue Team in Flateyri. We were chair and vice-chair when the avalanches struck on 14 January 2020. That night, two large avalanches came down, both of which went over the avalanche defence barriers. One hit the harbour and swept away the boats, while the other struck a house where a teenage girl was buried.

Peter is the CEO of Eagle Eyes Search. He has a PhD in machine learning and over a decade of experience in robotics and autonomous systems. Prior to founding Eagle Eyes, he worked at Brain Corp, where he led perception and navigation teams for fleets of thousands of deployed robots. Since 2022, he’s been full-time on Eagle Eyes drone software for search and rescue, building the system from the ground up, both on the software and drone integration side.

CDRE Ásgrímur L Ásgrímsson Chief of Operations and Deputy Director General Icelandic Coast Guard Chief of Operations and deputy Director General of the Icelandic Coast Guard 2025. National Military Representative to NATO SHAPE and Deputy Military Representative to NATO HQ 2023-2025.

I am a nurse and work in the Emergency Department at Landspítali – The National University Hospital of Iceland. Alongside this, I have volunteered with ICE-SAR rescue teams for around a decade and am currently completing a master’s degree in Disaster Management at the University of Copenhagen. In my final project, I examine different approaches to strengthening response capacity in rural areas of the Arctic.

Involved in search-and-rescue work since the end of the last century Crew member aboard the rescue vessel Hafbjörg Served on the committee for the construction of new rescue vessels Current chair of the executive board of the rescue boat funds Head of Maritime Rescue at the Rescue School

Páll Ágúst is a PhD candidate in meteorology and a long time ICE-SAR member with previous experience as a weather forecaster from the Icelandic Meteorological Office and the private industry before entering the academic world. From the recreational outdoor life he has guiding experience leading tours as a mountain leader and glacier guide in Iceland, Sweden and Greenland.

Júlíus is a folklorist and worked for many years as a police officer, as well as having experience as a member of a search-and-rescue team. He is the author and publisher of the recently released book Í framlínu – lögreglumenn segja frá (On the Front Line – Police Officers Tell Their Stories). Júlíus is also one of the three authors of Til taks (Ready to Respond), published in 2024, which tells the story of the Icelandic Coast Guard’s helicopter unit.

I am a member of the SAR team in Isafjörður and have been an active member for 19 years. The last 14 years I have been active in marine rescue as a Captain and Chief Mechanic of the all weather life boats in Ísafjörður.

Jón Haukur has been active in the Icelandic mountain rescue scene for nearly four decades and has been managing trail development at Mt. Esja. The lecture is a semi historical overview or a summary over serious accidents on that mountain for the past 5 decades.

Joanne and Greg Varney were  search and rescue volunteers from 1996 until their retirement in 2025.  They responded to  hundreds of search and rescue missions for missing people, conducting interviews of family members on many of those missions.  They responded to missing person and human remains searches in urban areas, wilderness, mudslides, and building collapses.

Christina “Rocky” Combs is a former Senior Enlisted Leader at the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC), where she operated at the nexus of national-level search and rescue coordination across the continental United States.

Marcia Koenig has been in dog search and rescue training since 1972 in the United States. She has responded to disaster situations such as plane crashes, mud slides, fire scenes, tornados, hurricanes, snow, and water with her SAR dogs.

Dr. Alun Newsome is a senior search and rescue professional with operational, academic, and advisory experience across complex, multi-agency environments.

Dr. Barbara Olga Hild specializes in adventure tourism, safety training, and risk management in High Arctic environments. Her PhD research on guide competencies and tourist safety draws on years of field experience in Svalbard, Greenland, and Iceland.

I have been a SAR member with the Central Okanagan Search and Rescue in Canada for 15 years with being a search manager for the past 5.5 years. I have managed over 280 tasks so far.

Andrew is an emergency manager in Australia who recently completed a Churchill Fellowship researching how communities mobilise to help in a disaster. He will speak about the increasing role of community in search and rescue, and how emergency agencies can harness collective community action while mitigating risks.

Dario is professor emeritus in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of New Mexico (UNM), USA, and medical director for the International Mountain Medicine Center.

Jake Cleal-Cook is a Rescue Crew Officer with the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter in Sydney, Australia, specialising in helicopter winch operations in the ocean environment.

Charles Combs has more than two decades of experience in public safety, including emergency medical services, Search and Rescue, and incident response operations. He is a former tactical medic and emergency medical services director with extensive operational experience in high-risk, complex environments.

HEMS/SAR/USAR Critical Care Paramedic Registered Nurse with 20 years HEMS/2500 Mission experience base and 40 years in health. Currently based in Rural Victoria Australia which covers Alpine and Marine environments in a Paramedic based HEMS system.

Aebhric is a former US Army Green Beret, a Tropical Nurse and a board-certified Critical Care Paramedic. He is the Founder and Dean Emeritus for the College of Remote and Offshore Medicine Foundation and a member of the Faculty Advisory Board for the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.

I’m Vigdis Kristin, a PhD student at the University of Reykjavík. I study the mental health of trained volunteers who respond to natural disasters. The research I’m working on focuses on anxiety, depression, PTSD, and burnout among ICE-SAR volunteers following the Grindavík volcanic eruption.

I am a PhD in military psychology from Karolinska institutet in Stockholm. Currently I am working as a humanfactor specialist at a energy company in Sweden (vattenfall AB).

Colonel Brenda Dietzman (Retired) is an internationally recognized speaker and trainer specializing in resilience and wellness for high-stakes professions. 

Julie is the Curriculum Director for Wilderness Medical Associates International and has been a Lead instructor with them since 2002. She is a paramedic, registered nurse, and flight nurse based in Haines, Alaska where she also serves as the EMS director for the Haines Volunteer Fire Department.

Kevin Grange is a critical care flight paramedic and also works as a firefighter paramedic with Jackson Hole Fire/EMS in Wyoming.

Jamie Pattison is an experienced Paramedic and adventure athlete specialising in pre-hospital care in remote, cold, and high-consequence environments.

Kyle has been a member of the Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Service in Chattanooga, TN for 10 years. He has participated in numerous cave rescues around the Southeastern United States.

Father of two wonderful girls, JC Ferguson is a Commander at Austin-Travis County EMS in Austin, Texas USA. He oversees the Special Event and Emergency Response team and was previously training coordinator for 10 years. 

Eoin volunteers with Exmoor Search & Rescue, where he serves as Chair, Team Member and Training Officer.

Dr. Smith is an EMS and Emergency Medicine physician practicing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Seamus Bradley has actively involved in Mountain Rescue in Ireland since 1993. Operationally he has been the team leader of the North West Mountain Rescue Team and the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team in the North West of Ireland.

Benedetta Beltramelli, MD Anesthesiologist and critical care physician with experience in HEMS, Antarctic missions, and remote/hostile environments.

Christophe Didelot is a Product Specialist within the Public Safety business of W. L. Gore & Associates, where he supports the development of advanced protective solutions for firefighters and rescue professionals. 

53y old commissioned officer (captain) at DEMA Danish Emergency Management Agency and have worked with national fire and rescue services for more than 30 years, both nationaly and international.

Axel is from Akureyri, Iceland where he works full-time as a professional Firefigter/EMT-A and also does air ambulance flights. He has been a member of ICE-SAR since 2005 and has been an instructor for ICE-SAR´s rescue school since 2008 and he is the wilderness medical training manager at the rescue school. He´s also an instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates International.