The Sixth Cohort
Stockholm School of Economics Fellows
Alfred Hedlund is a Masters student at the Stockholm School of Economics pursing a degree in Finance. He also holds a Bachelors
degree in Business & Economics from the Stockholm School of
Economics, with a concentration in finance. During his bachelor he
spent one semester studying at Smith School of Business at Queen’s
University in Ontario, Canada.
Alongside his studies, Mr. Hedlund works at the management consultancy firm QVARTZ as a Junior Consultant. During his time at QVARTZ he has discovered an interest in how businesses and financial institutions can drive sustainable development, and has also come to realize that there is a huge need for collaboration between the private and public sector. His intention is to develop an in-depth expertise at making these partnerships as efficient as possible.
Mr. Hedlund is fluent in Swedish and English, and has a basic understanding of Spanish.
Mr. Hedlund’s summer internship was spent at Albright Capital, an emerging markets private equity firm, where he was fortunate to work with a range of questions relating to potential investments, portfolio investments, and marketing. The internship allowed him to put his theoretical learnings from his MSc in Finance program into a practical context, while also learning about entirely unrelated topics, such as political risk considerations.
Nastassia Rudak is a Masters student pursuing a degree in Economics and a recipient of the af Jochnick Foundation scholarship at the Stockholm School of Economics. She previously graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics and Government.
Nastassia Rudak is a Masters student pursuing a degree in Economics and a recipient of the af Jochnick Foundation scholarship at the Stockholm School of Economics. She previously graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Economics and Government.
Ms. Rudak’s professional experience has been concentrated
mainly in the field of education. She has taught in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, working in a program focused on delivering
education in a post-conflict context. For two years Ms. Rudak
taught Economics in Costa Rica. She worked with various NGOs
to create after-school programs for children from at-risk
backgrounds. Ms. Rudak came to SSE with the goal of ultimately
using her education to create evidence-based policy, addressing the issues of transition economies such as the disproportionately large involvement of the state in the economy, lack of diversification and openness, and corruption. She believes that her experience as a Wallenberg fellow will allow her to develop a global perspective on the issues of transition economies while allowing her to refine the narrow expertise she is looking for.
Ms. Rudak is fluent in Russian, Belarusian, and English, proficient in French and conversational in Croatian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Spanish.
As a Wallenberg Fellow Ms. Rudak interned for the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery. As part of their Strategy and Design Team, she explored the potential for the Fund’s intervention into Eastern Europe as well as assisted in framing the directions for their projects in East Africa. The most important milestone for her was the final presentation she did for the Fund, which has the potential to translate into real action a year or two down the line.
Nicolas Powell is a Masters student at the Stockholm School of Economics pursuing a degree in Economics. He also holds a degree in Computational Math from Stanford University.
Following graduation from Stanford, Mr. Powell spent two years in London and the Bay Area working as an engineer at tech startups. Much of his work experience has focused on big data, specifically on realizing solutions to fundamental problems that businesses and governments face in the modern era. Mr. Powell is interested in intelligent policymaking, with a particular passion for alleviating global inequalities in wealth and productivity. He hopes to address these problems through trade policy as well as domestic solutions. Mr. Powell also plans to leverage his experience with information architecture in the pursuit of these goals.
A dual Czech-American citizen, Mr. Powell was raised in California and Colorado. He is fluent in Czech and English and conversational in French.
Last summer, Mr. Powell worked at AES, the energy company, working on a machine learning approach to predict interest rate and currency exchange risks for the company’s portfolio. He was working remotely, as the DC office was closed due to coronavirus.
Georgetown University Fellows
Ellie Durling is a Masters candidate in German and European Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she is pursuing a certificate in International Business Diplomacy with a particular interest in transatlantic trade policy. Ms. Durling graduated summa cum laude from Carleton College in 2017, where she majored in French & Francophone Studies and History and minored in German. She is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honors society. While at Carleton, she studied abroad twice in Berlin and Paris, where she completed an internship at a legal aid society focused on supporting undocumented immigrants. She also received an Independent Research Fellowship to return to Berlin in order to conduct research for her senior History thesis on the Weimar German gay rights movement, for which she received distinction.
Upon graduating from Carleton, Ms. Durling returned to her hometown of Washington, D.C. to work as an international trade legal assistant at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where she gained extensive experience in the fields of export controls and customs. Ms. Durling is a recipient of a full tuition scholarship to Georgetown as a Flynn Memorial Scholar. While at Georgetown she has interned at the French Embassy. She is fluent in French and proficient in German.
Last summer, Ms. Durling interned at Electrolux focusing on sanctions compliance, which ultimately inspired her masters thesis on the impact of extraterritorial U.S. sanctions on European companies. Her studies at Georgetown have been focused on Europe and the challenges facing global businesses, and this semester she is taking courses in government affairs, international trade law, and investment negotiations. After graduation, Ms. Durling is pursuing a career in regulatory compliance and policy in the private sector in Washington, D.C., and is looking forward to one day getting to visit Stockholm and connect with Wallenberg International Fellows Program fellows living there!
Yinuo (Jenny) Zhang is a Master of Science in Foreign Service candidate at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, concentrating in Global Business and Finance. She is also pursuing an honors certificate in International Business Diplomacy. Ms. Zhang studied Science, Technology and International Affairs at Georgetown University as an undergraduate, focusing on food and agriculture’s role in sustainable development.
Ms. Zhang has previously pursued professional opportunities that furthered her interests in agriculture and development. During her study abroad in Australia, Ms. Zhang worked on a consulting project evaluating blockchain’s potential to improve financial inclusion within the local dairy industry. She also worked on the Digital Agriculture research team at the World Bank, examining the potential for digital technologies to transform the food system and improve agricultural development outcomes. Through these experiences, she became interested in different vehicles to finance sustainable development and social impact. Most recently, Ms. Zhang interned at the Milken Institute’s Center of Strategic Philanthropy, analyzing philanthropic capital’s potential to catalyze social change. Professionally, she is interested in leveraging private capital and expertise to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and generate social impact. A ballroom dancer and philosophy enthusiast, Ms. Zhang also enjoys cooking and experimenting with new recipes from different parts of the world.
Ms. Zhang is a native Mandarin Chinese speaker and fluent in English.
As a Wallenberg International Fellow, she has been working with Ericsson’s Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility team since last summer. At Ericsson, Ms. Zhang supported its partnership with UNICEF to bring internet connectivity to schools, researched business models for rural connectivity, and she’s currently supporting its work with the Broadband Commission on digital learning.
The Wallenberg International Fellows Program 