FACULTY

Jan-Willem BROUWER (1956) studied History in Groningen and Paris (Paris-I, La Sorbonne). He obtained his doctorate at the Leiden University. He is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Parliamentary History at Nijmegen University. Since 1997 he teaches European integration history at the Institute of European Studies at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).

Antoine Bailleux is associate at Van Bael & Bellis – a leading independent law firm based in Brussels – and a professor at the Saint-Louis University in Brussels. He holds a degree in Law from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL), an LLM. from Cambridge University (UK) and a PhD in Law from the Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis (FUSL). His main practice areas and fields of research are the European Institutions Law and the Internal Market Law, mainly focusing on Competition Law.

Alexandre de Streel is the professor of EU Law at the Universities of Namur and Louvain in Belgium. Previously, he held different positions related to EU policies: senior EU advisor to the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and member of the Belgian delegation to the European Council, attaché at the Belgian Permanent Representation to the EU and chair of the Council Social Questions Working Groups during the 2010 Belgian Presidency, policy advisor at the European Commission (Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology). He holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute (Florence) on the relationship between telecom regulation and competition law, and a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Louvain.

Born in Cologne in 1963 and father of 3, Pascal Goergen was appointed Secretary General of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) in January 2012 until June 2014. Previously, between 2000 and 2011, he was the Diplomatic representative of the Brussels-Capital Region Representation to the European Union. Doctor of Political Sciences and graduate in international relations, he is passionate about Europe and has specialised in matters relating to regional policy and institutional lobbying of regions within the European decision-making process. With his expert knowledge of the role of regions in European policies, advocating for regions has clearly become his trademark. Since July 2014 he is Professor at the Business University EPHEC in Brussels and Louvain-la-Neuve. Author of two publications, “Lobbying in Brussels” (2006) and “Networking in Brussels” (2008), he is currently heavily involved in several key European dossiers: cohesion policy 2014-2020, research policy, the EU 2020 Strategy, the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and multi-level governance.

Bernard Snoy is a Belgian economist, PhD from Harvard University. He is currently visiting Professor at the Institute of European Studies at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL). He has spent most of his career working with European and international organisations. The positions he has held include: Executive Director of the World Bank and of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and, more recently, Co-ordinator of the economic and environmental activities of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Tom Delreux is an associate professor at the “Institut de sciences politiques Louvain-Europe” and the “Institut d’études européennes” at the “Université Catholique de Louvain” (UCL), where he teaches courses on European Union politics and institutions. Before joining the UCL in 2010, he was a Research Fellow of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FWO) at the “Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), where he graduated in 2008. His research interests include the EU’s external relations in former “first pillar” policy areas (mainly environment), inter- and intra-institutional relations in the EU and international environmental politics.

Michael Lognoul has an advanced Master in Information and Communication Technologies’ law (ICT), obtained in 2017, and is now a University Assistant and Researcher at the Law Faculty of the University of Namur (CRIDS). He has particular interest in Competition Law and Intellectual Property, and in Artificial Intelligence and Big Data related research subjects. His purpose is to start a PhD that articulates these fields of law, based on the technological evolutions that recently brought the latter to the public’s attention.

Henk Visser, graduated in 1990 in public management and joined the European Commission, DG Enlargement in 2001 dealing with Regional Programmes. Before this he worked with the EC as an expert/consultant drafting project proposals and programmes, managing and evaluating projects. He has dealt with programming, contracting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of actions in areas such as demining, culture, civil society, media, information society, research and development, support to SMEs and recently justice and home affairs. He has been dealing with the accession negotiations on Science and Research and still coordinate the participation in Union Programmes, Agencies and Committees. 

Giovanna has over 10 year experience in EU enterprise policies and programmes and an academic background in international relations and diplomacy complemented by a post-graduate master in European studies. She has been working for the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) since 2008. where she currently contributes to the management of the COSME programme and of some Horizon 2020 actions targeting SMEs. In particular, Giovanna provides expertise and support to the Enterprise Europe Network, the official network of the European Commission to help SMEs internationalise and innovate in Europe and beyond. Her main dossier is access to finance and her sectoral areas of responsibility include aeronautics and space and agro-food. Before joining the EASME, Giovanna worked two years for Confcommercio, the Italian General Confederation of Enterprises, Professions and Self-Employment, which is the largest business association in Italy. 

Ilenia Gheno is Research Project Manager at AGE Platform Europe, International NGO advocating for older people, and representing directly more than 40 million seniors in the EU28. She holds a Master in European Policies and has worked as Project Manager and Coordinator for European Consultancies, Public Authorities, European Non-Governmental Bodies and Non-for-Profit Associations for more than 10 years. She has been responsible for the management of project activities, reporting and financial duties for more than 50 different European projects under FP7, CIP PSP, IEE, LLL, H2020, COSME; she coordinates inputs on project proposals, especially in the field of social policies, health and tele-medicine, transport, accessibility, senior tourism and ethics; she is responsible of team management (capacity building, quality control, efficacy and time efficient, internal communication, team valorisation) and works on user engagement strategies and implementation, especially addressed to older vulnerable persons. Since 2013 she has been appointed as independent reviewer at the European Commission on FP7 and COSME programmes. 

Gabriella Iglói studied foreign trade and international relations and holds a PhD in management and business studies. She worked for 14 years within the national administration of Hungary as being in charge of several EU assistance programmes from pre-accession to Structural Funds. She had been representative of Hungary in cohesion policy related working groups of the European Council for 5 years and was president of these working groups during the Hungarian Presidency in 2011. Currently, she is policy officer within the European Commission, Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Policy.

Thomas Berger has been head of the EU liaison office of the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Fulda since 2016. Before he joined the university he had been managing director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research inter.reseaerch e.V. for 17 years. He still works part-time for the institute as director of mobility programmes and online academy. He has managed a regional Erasmus+ traineeships consortium since 2001 and the European Erasmus for young entrepreneurs consortium OPEN-EYE since 2009. He has been involved in numerous European research, education and innovation projects. The online academy implements results of European funded projects, which focused on the development of entrepreneurial, intercultural and civic key skills of mobile learners. Mr Berger received his Diploma Degree in Applied Computer Science in 1999 from the UAS Fulda and his MBA Degree in Science and Education Management in 2011 from the Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg.

John Baptist Onama was born in Lacor, Uganda. He has a solid background in the field of EU development co-operation policies, thanks to his direct participation in study missions and project fieldwork experiences in Kenya, Uganda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden, Ireland and Romania. Currently, he is a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Padua, yet he has been often called to conduct lectures on EU Project Cycle Management techniques both in Italy and abroad. He is Founder member and Chairman of the Italian Research Association for Sustainable Development Initiatives (IRASDI) and Vice Chairman of Incontro fra i Popoli NGO. He is the author of several publications such as «Africa Fifty Years After Decolonisation», «Development Cooperation and Gender Empowerment», «Decentralised Cooperation and Sustainable Urban Development», «Witnessing in Awareness» for UNICEF, «Promoting the International Cooperation Capacity of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)». He is a member of the Council for Dignity, Forgiveness, Justice and Reconciliation in Rome. He was Quality Board member in the EU Uni-Key Project. In 2012, he was part of the Committee for the Revision of the Development Cooperation Guidelines on Minors, developed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2009 to 2011 he worked on the Implementation of the law on Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation.

Enrico Riberi is an EU official working as External Auditor for the DG “Agriculture and rural development” of the European Commission. Before this position he has worked 7 years as Financial Adviser at the EACEA, the Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission. He developed his in-depth knowledge of the financial management of the EU grants working both in the Commission’s education sector (Lifelong Learning Programme – EACEA) and in the external aid service (EuropeAid). Before joining the European Commission, he worked as a project manager for several EU-funded projects (e.g. Interreg) at the European Affairs office of the Italian National Association of Municipalities (ANCI) based in Brussels. He is an IMES graduate; he also holds a university degree in Business Economics and the professional qualification of chartered accountant in the UK (ACCA – Association of Chartered Accountant).

Isane Aparicio is currently working as a manager for EU funding at Schuman Associates, a Brussels based consultancy. She has more than 15 years’ experience in drafting, management and evaluation of projects for local bodies, NGOs and non-profit organisations. Before moving to Brussels, she worked 7 years with the Red Cross and other international organisations in the areas of migration, social rights and cooperation and development. She has field experience in Venezuela, Cape Vert and Mozambique and has delivered training for both public sector and business audience. Isane holds a Master in Cooperation and Development by the Basque Country University and a Business Management course by Solvay Business School.

Philippe Morin has a working experience of 12 years in the field of Aviation and in EU affairs. Previously he has worked as Deputy Representative at Air France KLM and as Manager Public Affairs at the Association of European Airlines. Currently, he is Assistant Director EU Affairs for IATA the International trade association representing more than 270 global airlines. Philippe is dealing with consumer rights, safety, financial issues, and access to infrastructures, taxes and many other files. 

Damien Gerard serves as a case handler in the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission and is an academic affiliated with the University of Louvain (UCL, Belgium) and the College of Europe (Bruges and Natolin), where he also heads the Global Competition Law Center (GCLC).  Trained at the University of Louvain, the College of Europe and NYU Law School, he previously clerked for Judge Lenaerts of the European Court of Justice and practised with Cleary Gottlieb LLP for more than 10 years.  Damien Gerard has published and spoken extensively on EU competition law enforcement, substantive antitrust law, EU State aids law and general EU law, including internal market and institutional matters.  

Miss Masciulli has been a faculty member since 2017. She holds a Bachelor in Political Science from the University of Siena (Italy), a MA in International Relations from the University of Kent (UK) as well as a certification as Policy Officer & Project Consultant from the Belgian-Italian Chamber of Commerce. She started her career in finance working for one of “The Big Four” and then decided to focus on supporting startups and SMEs in getting access to funding. She is the co-founder of MyEUConsulting. She works on scouting the most promising top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies, and researchers with bright ideas and the ambition to scale-up internationally.

Tommaso Mignani graduated at the Faculty of Economics and Law at the University of Bologna and accomplished a Masters’ Degree in Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, in UK. He has several years of work experience in managing and coordinating grants-related processes, including in conflict affected countries. He worked for EU institutions and international NGOs in Nepal, Brussels and Colombia and he is knowledgeable of disaster preparedness, humanitarian assistance, rights of indigenous people and gender equality issues, and the protection of human rights defenders. He currently works as Grants Coordinator at the secretariat of ProtectDefenders.eu, a consortium of twelve international NGOs implementing the EU HRD Mechanism, a project funded by DG DEVCOs’ EIDHR. 

Emanuela Dimonte holds a Master’s degree in Economics (Law and Business Administration) from the University of Trento (Italy). She is currently working as Senior Consultant at the Global R&D and Innovation Services department in EY (https://www.ey.com/), one of the largest multinational professional services firm in the world. Before joining EY, she worked in a Dutch Grants and Innovation consultancy firm, where she was managing all the financial and legal aspects of more than 15 parallel running projects. Since 2016, she has been gaining an extensive experience in European funded projects (mainly H2020 and LIFE) being involved in various activities ranging from advanced project management (including official financial reporting) to European proposals preparation and submission as well as audits. 

Eda Ozdek works as a senior project manager at White Research (http://white-research.eu/), a Brussels-based research and consultancy company. Her key expertise lies in international funding, lobbying, project and policy research. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Master’s degree in Statistics at KU Leuven (Belgium), and is currently a doctoral researcher at KU Leuven’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Eda began her professional career as a consultant in World Bank projects. She gained extensive experience in data management and complex data analysis by contributing to the Eurobarometer studies conducted on behalf of the European Commission and the World Bank. Eda has been working as a project manager and consultant in several funding programmes for over ten years. Her complementary skillset allowed her to participate in over 50 project proposals in IPA, FP7 and H2020 programmes in various fields. With White Research, Eda has also taken part in the preparation and implementation of tender projects for the European Commission on a wide array of topics, ranging from ICT and KETs to entrepreneurship. Building on her first-hand experience, she has delivered several trainings and coaching on EU Funding programmes and project development for SMEs, Universities and Research Centres, Public institutions.