Changing the world requires foresight and innovation. Clinging on to only what we currently have is a lousy way forward. At Demos, Vera’s work is dedicated to transformative governance: promoting governments’ ability to both foster resilience and drive transformation.
Bringing unlikely stakeholders together comes down to finding a shared ethos. Even if not all interests are aligned, Vera aims to find sufficient common grounds and a shared sense of what’s to come after which life changing societal innovation can be born. Add into the equation her know-how in crossing the impact gap between knowledge and action and you have the winning algorithm to solve complex issues, such as the climate crisis or the inclusivity of digital transformation.
At Demos, Vera fell in love with the Demosian implementable naivety and empathy. Vera’s life and work are guided by the idea that empathy should be an all-pervading force. For her, that means empathy should be presented in all phases of creating change: observation, ideation, decision making, implementation, and evaluation. She considers it to be the lifeblood of fair, sustainable, and forward-looking transitions.
At Demos Helsinki, Vera has worked with Foresight, Anticipatory governance, Digitalisation, and Social innovation through projects like the AI 4.0 programme and the Ecosystem for social innovation in Finland.
In her free time, Vera enjoys cinema. Her current record is seeing 21 films in a week at the Love & Anarchy film festival.