Conor Lenihan is vice president of the Skolkovo Foundation. He has served in several government ministries in Ireland, including minister for science, technology and innovation until March 2011. As a minister he created a single budget line for science and technology funding and participated in the country's Innovation Task Force. He began his working life as a newspaper journalist and in the 1980s was based in the Palace of Westminster as a political correspondent for the Irish News. He was first elected to the Irish parliament in 1997. Lenihan was educated at Belvedere College and University College Dublin, where he studied economics, history and politics. He is a member of one of the best-known political families in Ireland; his grandfather, father, aunt and brother all served in the Irish parliament and in key ministerial positions.

Panel:
Innovation Super Nation