Europe's to-do list: realigning perspectives on the European project

Jamila Aanzi is a leading independent strategic consultant, educator and board member. She currently serves on the Dutch government appeal advisory commission to provide advice about the childcare benefits affair. Furthermore, she is a board member of the World Press Photo and the Stichting JES Rijland, an organisation that promotes the rights of youngsters in education and society. For various international clients, Aanzi provides consulting and coaching services about leadership, empowerment, education, diversity and inclusion. Aanzi previously worked as a senior international political trainer for the Max van der Stoel Foundation, with political parties in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and North Africa on diversity, the inclusion of young people and women, EU enlargement and democracy. Previously, she was the Dutch women’s representative to the United Nations, a member of the European Elections Programme Committee of the Dutch Social Democratic Party (PvdA) and the vice president of FNV Young, the youth network of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions.

Guillem Anglada-Escudé is a well-known astrophysicist and scientist, whose current work focuses on exoplanet detection and planetary exploration. Most notably, Guillem and his team discovered the Proxima b exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri, our closest neighbouring star and the nearest star to the Sun. He- has previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Goettingen, as well as Queen Mary University of London, where he became a reader in astronomy. He has conducted research in several countries and has been actively engaged with space agencies, such as NASA and the European Space Agency. In 2016, Guillem was named among the ten most prominent scientists worldwide by Science Magazine and one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Franziska Brantner is a German politician, who currently serves as Parliamentary State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. She is also the ministry’s Special Coordinator for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Prior to this, Brantner was a member of the Bundestag and a member of the European Parliament, where her work focused on foreign affairs, conflict resolution and rapid crisis response. She also conducted negotiations on the reform of the European External Action Service. Before entering politics, Brantner worked for the Bertelsmann Foundation and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

Malcolm Byrne is an Irish politician for the centrist Fianna Fáil party (ALDE) and served in local government before entering parliament. He is his party’s spokesperson on further and higher education, research, innovation and science. He speaks and writes regularly on regulating technology as well as the importance of the arts, sport and community volunteerism. He served on the Senate Brexit Committee. Previously, Malcolm worked as the head of communications and public affairs at the Higher Education Authority, the statutory agency in Ireland that allocates public funding to higher education and advises the government on higher education and research policy. Having worked for various lobbying and representative organisations throughout his career, Byrne was also the first commercial manager at myhome.ie, Ireland’s most successful property website. Outside of his professional career, he has completed 37 marathons, including another Dublin marathon last week.

Maud Caillaux is Co-Founder of Green-Got, a French neo-bank that channels funding towards the green transition. Customers get ecological bank accounts where savings contribute to ocean clean-up, re-forestation, sustainable agriculture, renewable energies and other environmental projects. The goal is to empower all savers to make money while investing in transition. “No longer will a single cent go to finance fossil fuels,” affirms Caillaux. Founded in 2020, Green-Got is expanding rapidly, with €100mn under management and transactions totalling more than €1bn. The bank went international by moving into Belgium in 2023 and, in November 2024, raised €5mn in 148 minutes during a record-breaking crowdfunding drive.

Geert Cami co-founded the Jacques Delors Friends of Europe Foundation, creating a panEuropean thinktank, advocacy & communications powerhouse and citizen engagement group, bringing together the Jacques Delors Institutes in Paris, Berlin and Brussels with Friends of Europe, the action-oriented think tank, he co-founded in 1999. In 2019, Geert founded TownHall Europe (the Davignon Centre for New Leadership) in Brussels, and since 2020, he has also served as Co-Secretary General of the Africa-Europe Foundation, which he co-founded with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Before that, Geert headed the European conference organising, press relations and publishing company Forum Europe for more than ten years, and he managed the revival of one of Belgium’s finest architectural examples of Art Nouveau after co-founding La Maison de l’Europe in the prestigious 100-year-old Bibliothèque Solvay. At the outset of his career, Geert worked for a few years in the Humanitarian Office ECHO at the European Commission, as deputy in the newly set-up Information and communications unit. He also worked for 2 music programmes at Belgian public Radio 1, and very briefly as a teacher and TV journalis

Francesca Cavallo is a bestselling author of children’s books, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Undercats Media. She is the co-creator of ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’, a collection of 100 tales of extraordinary women that has become a publishing sensation. Cavallo’s career began in theatre, where she worked as both a manager for a theatre company and as a playwright. In 2012, she moved to California to co-found a children’s media start-up called Timbuktu Labs, Inc. Since then, she has authored nine picture books that have been translated into more than 47 languages. Her most recent international bestseller is the children’s book ‘Doctor Li and the Crown-wearing Virus’.

Silvia is a young economist and entrepreneur specialising in game theory and interest groups. She has extensive experience as a strategist in auction design. In 2008, she co-founded Auctionomics, a high-stakes auction consulting and software firm with clients ranging from governments to Fortune 500 companies. Silvia has acted as project manager on several high-stakes auctions in Australia, Canada, and the United States, in many European countries, and in Africa and Latin America. She is also the co-founder of xSwan, an interactive version of eBay that allows charities to raise more money via online auctions. Silvia frequently speaks at major universities both in the United States (including Berkeley and Harvard) and around the world.

In his current role, Pedro Miguel da Costa e Silva is Brazil’s chief representative to the European Union. A career diplomat, he has worked for Brazilian missions in Geneva, Santiago, La Paz, Madrid and Ottawa. In Brazil, he has also served at the Office of the Presidency as the director of the economics department and as secretary of bilateral and regional negotiations in the Americas at the Division for International Trade. In this role, he was also the national coordinator for MERCOSUR and coordinator for the National Commission of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

Xavier is an engineer in computer science who is passionate about the digital renaissance. In 1999, while still at secondary school, he founded Tribal, a site that gathered student content from around Belgium for publication in a magazine that was distributed to 30,000 students nationwide. Ten years later, he co-founded Storify, a social media curation platform that enables users to create stories or timelines using content from social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Storify is now used by top brands, organisations and publishers around the world, including CNN, the New York Times, the United Nations and the White House. More recently, he co-founded OpenCollective, a company that enables groups to collect and spend money transparently without having to create a new bank account.

With a distinguished career in Belgian and European politics, Isabelle Durant has held the offices of Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Transport and Energy, and Senator in the Belgian Government. She also served as Vice-President of the European Parliament, President of the European Union Council of Ministers of Transport and as Deputy-Secretary General and Acting Secretary General of UNCTAD. With a wealth of experience collaborating with civil society and the private sector, her time as European Parliament Vice-President included responsibility for relations with civil society. Durant has held posts as a senior consultant on the empowerment of women in local government for the UNDP and as a member of Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium.

Lukasz is the CEO and Founding Partner of Montis Capital Fund. There, Lukasz oversees the formulation of financial and operational strategies. Previously, he was head of the Marguerite Fund office for the Central and Eastern Europe and member of the management board for the Marguerite Fund 2020 for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure in Luxembourg. He is also on the supervisory board of Pomeranka Development, InvestGas and Energa Operator in Poland, and of PZU Ukraine Insurance Company and Kredobank, also in Ukraine. Lukasz began his career as an adviser in the European Parliament, focusing on energy policy and security as well as EU relations with Russia and Ukraine.

Ben Eersels is Co-executive Director of G1000, the Belgian platform for democratic innovation. He has advised numerous governments, from the national to the local level, on how to integrate citizens in policy-making. He holds a PhD on the topic of “political participation in the Middle Ages” and is an alumnus of Belgium’s 40 under 40.

A Kosovar innovator and entrepreneur, Liza is shaping public discourse around diaspora and civic engagement. As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, she advocated for the advancement of Kosovo’s policies, legislation and institutional approaches regarding diaspora engagement. She founded the Kosovar committee for the United World Colleges (UWC), a global movement that promotes education as a force to unite people, nationals and cultures, where she served as chairwoman for over a decade. Liza is well known as the Founder and former executive director of GERMIN, an NGO that uses technology and virtual channels to connect and engage with the diaspora community to advance the socio-economic development and democratisation of the Western Balkan region. Additionally, Liza is also the Co-Founder and former managing director of KosovoDiaspora.org, a crowdsourcing digital engagement and diplomacy platform that connects Kosovars to the world and vice versa to promote Kosovo’s statehood internationally.

Ambassador HAMADA Takashi is a Japanese diplomat, holding a Bachelor of Science in International Law from Tokyo University for Foreign Studies and a Master of Arts in Regional Studies East Asia from Harvard University. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1991 and has built extensive expertise in East Asian affairs, particularly in China and Taiwan relations. His career includes serving as Director of the Second China and Mongolia Division, Deputy Chief Representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Taipei Office, and Minister at the Embassy of Japan in China. He also served as Cabinet Counsellor at the National Ocean Policy Secretariat and as Consul-General in Shenyang, China. Since October 2025, Ambassador Hamada serves as Deputy Chief of Mission at Japan’s Mission to the European Union, also serving as Ambassador in charge of the EU’s Political and Security Committee.

Audrey is a Belgian businesswoman with a wealth of experience in advising corporate, government and philanthropic clients on a range of development and social impact topics. As an Associate Partner at Dalberg Advisors, she works with clients to improve education, employment and health outcomes worldwide through the development, implementation and impact evaluation of inclusive development strategies. Audrey currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors at bpost, leading the Belgian postal operator’s transition from a mail to parcel network. She is the Chair of the Board at Be education, an organisation that supports the improvement of education in Belgium. Audrey is also the Co-Founder and former operational director of Spectralys Biotech, a start-up that provides a unique protein analysis technology for the biopharmaceutical industry. She was previously the president of Groupe Vendredi, a think tank focused on societal issues in Belgium, and head of philanthropy at Telos Impact, a venture philanthropy firm.

Marek Hattas is the Mayor of his hometown of Nitra. He sat in Slovakia’s Parliament from 2020 to 2023. Hattas’ victory in Nitra’s 2018 municipal election was a major upset. With little political experience and a largely self-funded campaign, the youthful activist defeated a longstanding incumbent from the nationalist Direction (Smer) party. Hattas built a groundswell of support in the city of 78,000 inhabitants: he organised anti-racism marches as a teenager; founded the popular Hidepark cultural space; and – as a keen cyclist – was a high-profile campaigner for green mobility. After a first term committed to community development, Hattas was re-elected in 2022.

Jávor is a Hungarian environmentalist, who currently heads the Representation of Budapest to the EU. He is former member of the European Parliament, during which time he focused on the policy areas of climate and environment, energy, anti-corruption and Roma inclusion. As an MEP, he was a founding member of the Dialogue for Hungary party and served as the first vice-chair of the Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. As a former member of parliament in the Hungarian National Assembly, Jávor served as leader of the Hungarian opposition party, Politics Can Be Different, and chair of the Sustainable Development Committee for most of his mandate. Prior to his career in politics, Jávor was a professor and lecturer in environmental law and has authored several articles and publications on sustainable development. He is also a founding member of Védegylet (Protect the Future), an NGO which aims to raise awareness of global environmental threats.

Lubomila Jordanova currently serves as the CEO of Diginex, following its acquisition of Plan A, the climate-tech company she co-founded. Plan A provides software that helps businesses decarbonise and align with sustainability policies, working with over a thousand organisations, including major global companies and public institutions. Jordanova is also co-founder of the Greentech Alliance, a community of more than 3,500 businesses tackling climate change with technology, connected to over 500 advisors from venture capital, media and business. She previously worked in investment banking, venture capital and fintech across Asia and Europe. Jordanova has been recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice, Marshall Fund Fellow and Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs in Germany.

Odysseas Konstantinakos is a Research Fellow at IE University and a PhD candidate at the European University Institute, specializing in European political economy, macroeconomic governance, and the Single Market. He has professional experience in EU institutions, political risk and strategic communications consulting, and teaches a graduate course on the politics of economic crises at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland.

András Tivadar Kulja is a surgeon and digital-health expert who was elected to the European Parliament in June 2024 on the ticket of Hungary’s opposition Tisza Party. With 360,000 followers on TikTok, he has Hungary’s most widely-viewed health-education channel. Kulja used his high social media profile to counter disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inspired to enter politics after attending an opposition rally in April 2024, Kulja gave up his hospital posts to speak freely about Hungary’s healthcare problems. He is a Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Climate, and Food Safety and a member of the Committee on Public Health, where he advocates for a stronger EU role in promoting healthcare reform.

Pascal Lamy is a French politician and the Vice President of the Paris Peace Forum, a new innovative global governance initiative. He served as the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for two consecutive terms, prior to which he was the European commissioner for trade and head of cabinet for former Commission president, Jacques Delors. Currently an associate professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Lamy also frequently lectures at the Institut Jacques Delors and speaks on issues related to globalisation, global governance, international trade, international economics and regional integration. He has written several publications on the European Union and the ‘harmonising’ of globalisation and is a Trustee of Friends of Europe.

Ivan Lesay is a political economist, advisor and writer from Slovakia, currently serving as Foresight Advisor at the National Bank of Slovakia. He previously initiated the creation of the Slovak Investment Holding, a state-owned fund supporting strategic sectors, and as CEO managed over €1bn in investments to strengthen the national economy. Lesay has held senior government roles, including deputy finance minister, and played a leading role in negotiating the EU’s 2017 Budget during Slovakia’s EU Presidency. He also served on the Board of the European Investment Bank. A keen writer, Lesay has published works ranging from economic analysis to children’s literature, and his debut novel, The Topography of Pain, was published in English by Guernica Editions in 2024.

Hanna Liubakova is a journalist and analyst from Belarus. She is a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and has written about the latest developments in Belarus for international outlets such as The Washington Post, The Economist, and others. In 2023, she won the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award and was a finalist for the 2021 European Press Prize. Liubakova began her career at the only independent Belarusian channel, Belsat TV, which was banned by the regime in Minsk. She later joined RFE/RL and worked in Prague, Czech Republic. Currently, she is working on a book about Belarus. Following the 2020 revolution, Hanna was forced to flee Belarus and later learned that she was on the regime’s wanted list. She has continued to report on the people’s resistance, which has become even more crucial amid the Belarusian regime’s participation in the war against Ukraine.

Catriona Mace took up her role as Foreign and Development Policy Director at the UK Mission to the European Union in August 2022. Before that, Catriona was Deputy Director Corporate Transformation in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Deputy Director of Negotiations and Readiness Co-ordination in Europe Directorate at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Catriona has held a number of posts at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). She was Head of the Africa Team at the UK Mission to the UN in New York, having previously led the FCO Africa Strategy Unit. Catriona also served at the UK Representation to the European Union in 2004 to 2007. Catriona joined the FCO after working in the Office of the High Representative in Sarajevo.

Julie is the Project Manager of the Debating Europe team. Prior to joining Debating Europe, Julie worked in the European public affairs sector in Paris and Brussels, mainly on environmental policies. She was also a Blue Book trainee at the European Commission Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENV), focusing on the green diplomacy in the regional and bilateral environmental cooperation unit. She holds a BA in Political Science from Concordia University in Montréal and an MA in International Relations, European Policies and Project Management from Université Jean Moulin Lyon III and Université of Lille in France. Julie is fluent in French and English and speaks basic Spanish. 

Amélie Matton is the current Senior Advisor to the Board, and until recently CEO, of Ecosteryl, a world-leading medical waste management service based in Mons, Belgium. An experienced leader with a demonstrated history in the environmental services industry, Matton also has a strong background in the financial, operations and international trade sectors. At the head of a company, in a once male-dominated industry, now operating in more than 65 countries, this environmental engineer is passionate about women not having to make concessions in order to become leaders in business. Among her accolades, Matton is a member of Belgium’s 40 under 40, was nominated at the Manager of the Year 2023 edition and was part of the first Belgian list of Inspiring Women in Tech.

Evelien Masschelein started her career as a researcher on innovation in the University of Leuven, then worked as a strategic policy advisor for the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of employment. She worked 13 years first as a lead expert and then as country director in Ecuador, Palestine and Morocco. She is a frequent panelist on issues related to international cooperation and partnership development.

Before becoming Executive Director of UNICEF Hungary in 2017, Antonia was a well-known Hungarian journalist, television presenter, author and documentary filmmaker. She has interviewed just about every EU politician that visited Hungary in recent years. She hosted Hungary’s main evening current affairs programme from 2007 to 2011, but was forced to leave the national public broadcaster MTV, along with thousands of colleagues after the new government “reorganised” public broadcasting and has been working at ATV, an independent news channel ever since. Antonia has participated in charitable projects and literacy campaigns aimed at helping the Roma population. For the last few years she has also been asked to head a Hungarian foundation recognising and rewarding journalistic achievements and organising events and workshops for media professionals. She is an English Literature graduate from ELTE University in Budapest.

Meghan Milloy is the Co-Founder of Republican Women for Progress (RWFP) and the Director of Strategic Communications at the Institute for International Bankers. Prior to this, she was a fellow at the Robert Bosch Foundation, where her work focused on trade issues in the German public and private sectors. Meghan previously served as the chair of Republican Women for Hillary (RWFH) and director of financial services policy at the American Action Forum (AAF). During the Obama administration, Meghan worked as a presidential management fellow at the Small Business Administration on matters of financial inclusion and as a counsel with the House Financial Services Committee. She was an intern at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the George W. Bush White House. Meghan has also worked in the office of former Senate majority leader Trent Lott and has volunteered for the campaigns of Haley Barbour, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton.

A Polish economist, Katarzyna is currently a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee for Future Studies Poland 2000 Plus. Her research interests include development, cultural and international economics, with a focus on East Asian markets. Katarzyna’s work also explores challenges to global development. Having lectured at universities across Asia, Africa and Europe, she has worked on several research projects for the European Commission and the National Bureau of Research in Poland, among other international institutions, as well as national and local governments. Her academic achievements have been recognised by numerous awards, including one for outstanding young scholars from Poland’s Minister of Science and Higher Education. Katarzyna has published numerous articles and books on issues relating to development, governance, integration and regional cooperation, most recently having co-edited “The Rise of Megacities: Challenges, Opportunities and Unique Characteristics”.

Ambassadors Kanchana received her Bachelor’s Degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and her Master Degree from University of Chicago Committee on International Relations. She has almost 35 years in diplomatic career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, covering issues ranging from European affairs, Southeast Asian affairs, North American affairs, global issues, United Nations, SDGs, climate change, human rights and humanitarian affairs, policy and planning, etc. Her postings abroad were Phnom Penh, Geneva, New York, Stockholm, and now Brussels. She previously was Thailand’ s Ambassador to Sweden and Latvia, Director General for International Organizations, and Director General for Information and Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry. Ambassador Kanchana has keen interest in sustainable development, human rights, and youth education.

Building on an extensive background in architecture and history, Stephan Petermann has established himself as a prominent figure in Europe’s arts & culture scene. He has written for the architecture magazine VOLUME and was previously a member of the EU Reflection Group, a ‘wise men’ council established to stimulate thinking around the future of the European Union. Petermann’s most recent artistic endeavour saw him participate in a collaborative project between the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Chinese Academy for Fine Arts.

Tomáš Petříček is a Senior Non-Residential Fellow at the Centre of Global Political Economy at the IIR in Prague. He is also the Director of the Progressive Analytical Centre, a Prague-based think tank, and a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. He previously served as the Czech minister of foreign affairs. His research interests lie in the area of international political economy, new technologies and development, societal resilience, global environmental politics and climate diplomacy. 

Nina Rawal is a Partner and Co-Head at Trill Impact Ventures, Europe’s leading impact investing house. Prior to her current role, she founded Emerging Health Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on affordable medicine and medical products. She was also the head of life science at the Swedish Industrial Development Fund, a €500mn venture capital fund, where she was responsible for international business development in early life science companies. Rawal has also previously served as the head of strategy and ventures at Baxter Group, formerly Gambro, a leading global medical technology company. She also sits on the boards of MedCap AB and Stockholms Sjukhem, a non-profit hospital. In recognition of her work, Rawal has been recognised among the Women’s Forum Rising Talents.

Caroline Read is the Deputy Ambassador at the UK Mission to the EU, and took up her post in September 2023. Prior to joining the UK Mission, Caroline was Director for British Investment Partnerships at the FCDO (job-sharing this post). Her team led on policy and programming on economic development, as well as global economic cooperation – including the UK’s relationship with the OECD. Previously, she was International Relations Director at DFID leading DFID’s work on international institutions and groupings including: UN development agencies, International Financial Institutions; and the G20/G7. Prior to moving to DFID Caroline spent most of her career at HM Treasury, focusing on international issues. She has also held a number of domestic policy and economic roles at HMT, including tax and spending. Caroline has also worked in NGOs, working on private sector development in the Middle East and working in the Finance Ministries in Sierra Leonne and Liberia.

Heïdi Sevestre is a French glaciologist, specialising in glacier dynamics, tropical glaciers and ice shelves in Antarctica. She aims to make scientific knowledge more accessible and motivate concrete, effective climate action. Sevestre is the Deputy Secretary of AMAP, an Arctic Council working group that coordinates research on climate, pollutants, contaminants, and human and ecosystem health in the Arctic. Her research on glacier surges, which was featured in Science magazine, strengthened our understanding of climate change’s impact on glaciers. Sevestre regularly leads scientific expeditions to polar and high mountain regions and was notably awarded the inaugural Shackleton Medal for the Protection of Polar Regions.

Dana Spinant is the Director-General for Communication at the European Commission since 2023. Previously, she served as Director for Political Communication and Deputy Chief Spokesperson (2019–2023), shaping the Commission’s public messaging during critical EU policy debates. Her earlier roles included leading communication and budget strategy for Regional and Urban Policy, as well as heading units on irregular migration and drugs policy. Before joining the Commission in 2009, Dana was a Brussels-based journalist and editor, including as Editor of European Voice (2004–2009) and a political commentator for Romanian media. A graduate of the College of Europe (Bruges) and the University of Bucharest, she is fluent in Romanian, French, English, and German.

Rahul Singh Leads EMEA Region for CyberSecurity Business in Tata Consultancy Services. In his role he drives Business Growth, Strategy and Partnership across industries. With more than 2 decades of experience in Technology and Consulting field, Rahul has worked closely with many customers in enabling their transformation journey. Rahul holds MBA degree in Information Technology from SP Jain Centre of Management, Singapore and Masters degree in Change Management from INSEAD, Fontainebleau.

Born in Uzbekistan and educated at Aarhus University in Denmark, her unifying work is rooted in a corporate career in global shipping with Maersk Line and over 15 years advancing political participation and the employment of international talent, spouses and minorities in the Nordics, as well as youth Global Dignity programmes from Finland to Uzbekistan. With last eight years of shaping and guiding meaningful conversations and inclusion and belonging programs and initiatives, she has shown in practice that results and action happen where people, power and possibility meet. Her work ranges from citizen initiatives and municipal experimentation projects, to uniting entrepreneurs and investors in Europe and Central Eurasia around talent attraction and the urban–rural divide. Kamilla has written op‑eds,  supported policy makers on inclusion and employment, co-created media campaigns on cultural diversity in working life, and hosted the Finnish‑language podcast Suomi+ as a non‑native speaker to challenge accent bias and widen who is heard.  She believes that if we connect the humans first, the strategy will follow – turning big words like ‘European values’ into everyday choices in companies, communities and institutions that decide what kind of future we build together.

Michał Szczerba currently serves as member of the European Parliament, Vice-Chair of the Delegation to the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Partnership Committee, the EU-Azerbaijan Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and the EU-Georgia Parliamentary Association Committee.  He also holds the position of President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. An experienced Polish politician, Szczerba served as an elected member of the Polish Sejm for several legislatures since 2007. Prior to this, he worked as an expert on EU funding for restructuring and modernising agriculture and was on the Wola District Council of Warsaw. Szczerba notably received the Order of Honour from the President of the Republic of Georgia, and has been part of numerous leadership training programmes.

Dimitris Tsingos is a serial tech entrepreneur and early stage investor. He is the Founder and CEO of Startech Ventures, a private venture builder and seed investor in Greece. The first Greek seed fund member of the European Business Angels Network, the group has helped launch more than ten successful IT start-ups. Dimitris has been at the helm of various start-ups, including Epignosis, Yodeck, Cycleops and Testilio, among others, and most notably AbZorba Games, a mobile gaming service which was acquired by Novomatic. A passionate European federalist and co-author of the Rome Manifesto, Dimitris initiated the People’s Movement for the European Federal Union. He has also founded the Hellenic Business Angel Network and the Hellenic Start-up Association, a collective effort of Greek start-up entrepreneurs promoting high-growth and innovative entrepreneurship in Greece. He is also the former president of the leading organisation of youth entrepreneurship in Europe, the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, and a former fellow at the Marshall Memorial and PSL Research University.

One of the world’s prime technology experts in generative AI and visual effects, Chris Umé has taken the industry to a whole new level as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Metaphysic, the leading generative AI company for photorealistic content at internet scale. Blending a mastery of VFX techniques with evolving AI models, Umé’s creativity was the driving force behind the ground-breaking live television moment that shocked audiences when Elvis Presley was brought back to life on America’s Got Talent, and is now taking Tom Hanks and Robin Wright through time in Miramax’s Here. Prior to the launch of Metaphysic in 2021, he gained experience at DeepVooDoo and Medialaan. He was also the lead creator on South Park’s Sassy Justice series and several world-famous commercial production campaigns.

Kirsten van den Hul was the director of DutchCulture, the Dutch network and knowledge organisation for international cultural cooperation. Before assuming her current position, she worked as an independent consultant through her own company, The Change Agent, on different transition projects, mainly in the public sector. Previously, van den Hul served as member of parliament for the Dutch Labour Party, where she focused on culture, education, gender equality, foreign trade and development. An Eastern Europe specialist, she was also active on the crossroads between culture, human rights and international cooperation and worked for several international NGOs, including international women’s fund Mama Cash and the European Cultural Foundation.  Van den Hul was also a columnist for newspapers and magazines, contributed to a number of publications and wrote a book, “(S)hevolution”. In addition, she notably held the role of Dutch UN Women’s Representative.

Jan-Willem van Putten is a Dutch social entrepreneur and policy expert. He is co-founder of both The School for Moral Ambition and Training for Good, which focus on priming a new generation of leaders to confront pressing global challenges and make a lasting impact on society. Through his work, he strives not only to talk about a better world, but also to take action towards one. As Fellowship Director at The School for Moral Ambition, van Putten manages programmes that empower individuals to drive change in sustainable food production and tobacco industry control. Training for Good works to equip young European policymakers and journalists to recognise and reduce risks from emerging technologies.

Jon is one the best-known political bloggers and commentators on all things EU politics and Brexit. His commentary on his blog (jonworth.eu) and Twitter account (@jonworth) are well known in Brussels and EU circles. His work around Brexit and especially his famous Brexit diagrams have been featured in international media, including The New York Times and ARD. Jon is a Visiting Lecturer on politics and online communication at the College of Europe in Bruges. He also leads workshops at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, the University of Maastricht and the Italian School of Public Administration in Rome. The Founder of Trains for Europe, a campaign that demands the European Union take action on the issues surrounding long distance rail travel in Europe, Jon is an experienced campaigner, having previously organised a number of online campaigns for United Kingdom politicians and the Atheist Bus Campaign.