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We recorded our latest podcast episode just a few days before Russia brutally invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February, and the topic couldn’t have been timelier. Florian Marcus’s guest is Jaanika Merilo, an evangelist of e-government, head of PR and Communication of Funderbeam, advisor to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and advocate of EU and Ukrainian relations. Her enthusiasm, influence and passion for digitalisation have been recognized around the world – besides abundant awards and acknowledgements, she was nominated by Google and Financial Times in TOP 100 innovators that change the world.
With her Estonian-Ukrainian origin and background in IT and investments, Jaanika has been advising the Ukrainian Government and local municipalities on digitalisation since 2015 and has played a part in building the Ukrainian e-government model. Being one of the most dedicated students of e-Estonia, Ukraine has in many ways moved forward. As they didn’t have any heritage technology, they could skip the desktop part and move straight to the smartphone. Ukraine is also an excellent example of how a country with a population of over 40 mil people can also digitalise their services. „We didn’t have any e-health solutions and just a year later we can see 3 million people who don’t have to wait in the lines and how their lives have been changed,“ shared Jaanika. Â
Ukranian’s digitalisation journey and Estonia’s role in it, Orange Revolution and cyber security landscape are just some topics the conversation touched.Â
🎧Available on Apple Podcast and Spotify:
