Dr. Jaana Kettunen is a Professor of Guidance and Vice-director at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research (FIER), at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and a Research Associate at Florida State University's Center for Career Research. She currently serves as President of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG). Dr. Kettunen´s research has a strong international orientation and revolves around career guidance practices, practitioner training, quality, strategic leadership and public policy development, with a special interest in the design and use of information and communication technology including AI in career guidance. Her work bridges research and practical application, and she has published in leading journals in the field. Widely recognized for her expertise, she has delivered invited lectures and keynotes across Europe, North America, Asia, and Oceania, and has collaborated with UNESCO, OECD, ILO, and the European Commission. Dr. Kettunen’s influence extends well beyond academia, as she collaborates with international organizations, including the European Commission, OECD, ILO, and UNESCO. Her contributions have been recognized with international honours, including the NCDA International Practitioner of the Year Award and the IAEVG–APCDA Academic Excellence Award.

Dr Ooi Pei Boon obtained her PhD in Guidance and Counselling from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), and she is a registered and practising counsellor with Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia (LKM). Dr Ooi is trained to use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a technique in her counselling practice. She is also the Master Trainer for Media Heroes, a cyberbullying intervention program which has been implemented in Malaysian schools, including those with individuals with visual impairment. Her research interests are cyberbullying, mental health and wellbeing, and AI and ethics in Counselling. Dr Ooi is the panel counsellor appointed by the Bar Council Malaysia and the Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia.

Csilla Potane Dallos is a PhD candidate at the Doctoral School of Regional and Economic Sciences at Széchenyi István University, Hungary. Her research examines the role of artificial intelligence in career guidance, with particular attention to its integration into secondary school career orientation and its regional dimensions. Her doctoral work uses a mixed-methods approach to investigate patterns of AI use, user attitudes, and the implications of AI-supported tools for career decision-making. A central concern of her research is how artificial intelligence is incorporated into actual guidance practices and how it shapes the relationship between information, professional interpretation, and individual decision-making. Alongside her academic work, she is an experienced career guidance practitioner working with adolescents and adults in individual and group settings. Her practice draws on structured counseling frameworks, including the Zurich–Mainz Life Design Counseling Model, and combines psychometric assessment with AI-supported analysis. This dual perspective allows her to approach career guidance both as a field of research and as an area of applied professional practice. Her recent work focuses on hybrid career counseling models that combine established counseling methods with AI-based analysis. She is particularly interested in how AI can widen access to career information, how such outputs are interpreted within counseling processes, and how the professional role of the counselor is changing in digitally supported environments. She has presented her research at national conferences in career guidance and higher education, focusing on the practical integration of AI into counseling processes and the development of practitioner-oriented methods. She is also involved in professional training activities that support career guidance practitioners in responding to digital transformation. Her broader research agenda concerns the development of theoretically grounded and empirically informed approaches to career guidance that incorporate technological innovation while preserving the relational and interpretive dimensions of counseling practice.

Marc Schreiber is a Professor of Personality and Counseling Psychology at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland. His work as a counselor, lecturer, and researcher specializes in the intersection of personality and vocational psychology, with a focus on narrative identity. Recently, his research has expanded into the integration of Artificial Intelligence within life design counseling.