State of Europe 2018

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.

Alberto Alemanno is a leading voice on the democratization of the European Union. He’s currently the Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and at the University of Tokyo School of Public Policy. His research has been centred on how the law may be used to improve people’s lives, in particular through the adoption of power-shifting reforms countering social, economic, and political inequalities within European societies and beyond. He is a regular contributor to Le Monde, Bloomberg, Politico Europe, Forbes, and Il Sole 24 Ore, and his scholarly work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times, as well as Science and Nature.

Louise is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. She was appointed as the UN Special Representative for International Migration in 2016. Louise has previously served at the Supreme Court of Ontario and was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1996, Louise was appointed by the Security Council of the United Nations as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. It’s under her leadership that the Rwandan genocide was recognised internationally, a sitting Serbian president was indicted for war crimes, and rape was recognized as a war crime.

Matilda’s cutting-edge research on industrial decarbonisation draws from the fields of sustainability and innovation. She currently focuses on the mitigation of emissions from energy-intensive industries through value-chain development and enhancement of European industrial innovation systems. She also looks at how business model innovations can drive increased resource efficiency in energy-intensive industries. Matilda also works as a Senior Advisor to the Industrial Innovation for Competitiveness initiative (i24C). Prior to joining the VUB, she led research on breakthrough decarbonisation technologies in the EU steel industry and on decarbonisation of Europe’s energy-intensive industries.

Lloyd is one of Canada’s leading voices on global migration and refugee protection. After a 27-year political career, where he served as Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs and minister of Employment and Immigration, among other postings, Lloyd has continued to work extensively on human security, refugee protection and human rights in Canada and abroad. He was presented with the Pearson Peace Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 2017. Lloyd also served as the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg for ten years.

Noura is a passionate young leader, mobilizer and advocate for youth participation, human rights, active citizenship and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Noura serves on the Governing Body of the European Youth Parliament (EYP), the largest platform for non-formal political education of young Europeans. Noura also serves on the board of the National Council of Swedish Youth Organisations (LSU), which gathers over 700 000 young Swedes in 83 member organisations. She was the official Swedish youth delegate to the United Nations in 2016 and in 2017, placed 14th on Makthavare’s list of 100 future policy makers in Sweden.

Jacques is a senior partner at McKinsey and a director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the firm’s business and economics research arm, and one of its three global co-leaders. Since joining the firm, he has worked with media, telecom, online services, healthcare, fin-tech, travel and logistics companies on a variety of issues. He is also the co-author of numerous reports on the Internet of Things, big data and social technologies, including “Digital Europe: Realizing the continent’s potential”. He is a fellow of the Aspen Institute, ECORE, and KUL University.

Iain is the Chair of Biodiversity and Collective Behaviour at the University of Konstanz, Germany and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Department of Collective Behaviour. His work aims to reveal the fundamental principles that underlie evolved collective behaviour, and consequently his research includes the study of a wide range of biological systems, from insect swarms to fish schools and primate groups. In recognition of his research, he has received the Searle Scholar Award, the Mohammed Dahleh Award, Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10” Award, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award and the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London.

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.

Niall is shaking traditions in the humanitarian sector through AID:Tech, a company that uses blockchain technology and digital identity to bring social and financial inclusion to the world’s undocumented and underserved populations. Niall’s work delivers digital entitlements which include welfare, aid, remittances and donations. AID:Tech was the first company to successfully deliver international aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon using blockchain technology. Prior to AID:Tech, Niall founded a number of other companies and has held senior technology positions in a range of organisations, including HP, Ericsson, LG & Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Hailemariam served as 14th Prime Minister of Ethiopia and as Chair of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the ruling party, from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. His politics builds on that of his predecessor Zenawi, contributing to making Ethiopia a bastion of stability, inhabited by over 100 million people. Hailemariam also served as the chairperson of the African Union during his time as prime minister.

Mary Fitzgerald is a researcher and analyst specialising in the Mediterranean region with a particular focus on Libya. She has consulted for a number of international organisations including in the areas of peacebuilding and civil society. She has worked with the International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) among others. She is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College London and an Associate Fellow at ISPI in Milan. Mary has also worked on wider initiatives with UNESCO, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the British Council and other cultural organisations. Her writing has appeared in publications including Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Guardian.

Together with Ashoka, Markus has founded FASE and established it as the leading European impact finance advisor. Since 2013, FASE has built a successful track record: an investor base with >2,000 impact investors and successful support for >85 European impact ventures, raising EUR >75mn in hybrid growth capital. Additionally, FASE has initiated the European Social Innovation and Impact Fund (ESIIF). The ESIIF is the first financial intermediary across Europe providing impact ventures with patient capital and benefiting from EU-guarantees (EaSI).

Markus is recognized as a thought leader for social finance in Germany and beyond. Markus has an active presence in public discourses (e.g. member of Expert Group on Social Entrepreneurship of EU Commission (GECES), Board Member of Impact Europe) and wrote a wealth of articles, reports and case studies on best practices in social finance. He was also selected for the 40 under 40 European Young Leaders Class 2017.

Prior to this, Markus worked for more than 7 years as consultant for McKinsey & Company. Markus studied Business Administration and Economics at the Universities of Witten/Herdecke and Cambridge and received his Ph.D. from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

Elisa currently provides her direct political expertise in her role at Solidar. Passionate about social affairs and public policies through her work with the European network of Civil Society Organisations, Elisa has focused her career and political ambitions on ensuring a fairer and stronger Europe. She has served as the national contact of Italy’s European Socialists Party and worked within the Advisory Unit of the Minister of Labour and Social Policies.

Anthony served as US Ambassador to the EU from 2014 to 2017, during which time he played a key role in negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP), the EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement and the Umbrella Agreement facilitating the transatlantic transfer of data between law enforcement authorities. Prior to this position, he was managing director of a London-based equity firm and served in senior roles at the Bank of America, GE Capital and GE International. He also served as director for European Affairs on the US National Security Council, where he was responsible for US relations with the EU.

Oliver is the Co-founder and CEO of the Bureau für Zeitgeschehen, a Berlin-based think-and-do-tank specialising in strategic foresight and scenario planning and a guest lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance. From 2008 to 2016, he served as Director of GIZ AgenZ, an in-house consultancy of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). He worked with the planning staff of the German Federal Chancellery, the German President’s Office and the German Foreign Office.

Prior to founding Project Alloy, Jakob was the CEO and Co-Founder of Tinyclues SAS, a Paris-based software startup with the objective of industrialising datamining on Big Data with the help of advanced machine learning algorithms in a Cloud Computing environment. Previously he was a partner and consultant at McKinsey & Company in Germany and France where he worked on topics ranging from Banking to Public Sector Reform to Global Public Health issues, notably the creation and distribution of child HIV treatments. Prior to McKinsey he briefly worked at the World Bank. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Science from the University of St. Gallen. Jakob is also a founding partner of the “Cercle du Leadership”.

Anne-Marie co-founded and became the CEO of Stemettes in 2013. Through this social enterprise, she aims to inspire and promote the involvement of the next generation of women into scientific, technologic, engineering, and mathematics centred subjects (STEM) and careers. Within three years, Stemettes has attracted over 7000 girls across the UK, Ireland and Europe to their events. A child prodigy, Anne-Marie’s passion and success in the STEM scene started at an early age, with passing two GCSEs at the age of ten, and being the youngest girl ever to pass A-Level Computing. In recognition of her influence and achievements, Anne-Marie was awarded an MBE in 2017.

A Latvian politician, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica is a Deputy Speaker of the Saeima, the Latvian parliament, where she sits on the Committee of Foreign Affairs and Committee of European Affairs. She serves as a Head of the Latvian Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Previously, Kalniņa-Lukaševica held numerous posts at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including as the parliamentary secretary, in which role she was responsible for ensuring cooperation between the ministry, the Latvian parliament and the European Parliament. She has also represented the Latvian government at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meetings of development and trade ministers. Kalniņa-Lukaševica started her professional career at Jurmala’s city council and then went on to work at the Strategic Analysis Commission of the President of Latvia, where she served as an advisor to the president.

Prior to his current position, Alexander was the director of the Department for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs. He has worked on disarmament issues since 2000, including in Geneva and with the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. In 2014, he was responsible for the organization of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. He was elected 2014 Arms Control Person of the Year by the Arms Control Association.

Gaitri was appointed Ambassador of India to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union in June 2017. Before arriving for her posting in Brussels, Gaitri worked close to the Indian President in New Dehli. She has a long history in the Indian diplomatic service since 1986, with postings in both Paris and Geneva. In Geneva she was a counsellor to the Conference on Disarmament and she has worked on questions relating to finance and social issues.

Ana is the Portuguese State Secretary for Industry, who developed a strongly focused international career of two decades spanning academia, public policy and executive positions in over twenty public and private organisations. Her areas of specialisation relate to the competitiveness of firms and industries, notably companies’ internationalisation, foreign direct investment attraction, innovation, industrial clusters and public policy. Ana served as a consultant to leading international institutions (OECD, UNCTAD, European Commission, among others) and various national and regional governments in five continents. 

Prior to assuming his current role at Edwards Lifesciences, the global leader in patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease, Jean-Luc Lemercier served as the vice-president of transcatheter heart valves of the EMEA region. Under his leadership, the company successfully launched the SAPIEN transcatheter heart valve technology and built its leadership position in Europe. Lemercier also serves as Chair of the Cardiovascular Sector Group of MedTech Europe, the association representing the medical technology industry in Europe.

As CEO of Rovio Entertainment, a Finland-based global entertainment company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games which have been downloaded over 4bn times, Kati is one of the few female chief executives of a European technology company. Today, the digital gaming industry has significant social and financial impacts related not only to its entertainment value but also to the increase in innovations and technological know-how. Prior to her position as CEO, she served as Rovio’s Chief Legal Officer as well as Head of Sales for the EMEA region, and previously worked at Nokia Siemens Networks and Poyry.

André Loesekrug-Pietri is an entrepreneur and has held leadership positions in private equity, government and industry. He is currently the Chairman of JEDI, which aims to accelerate Europe’s leadership by financing and nurturing the development of breakthrough technologies. He previously served as a special advisor to the French Minister of Defence, where he was responsible for European defence policy, as well as technology and innovation, prior to which he has 15 years of experience in private equity and venture capital. Loesekrug-Pietri is a lecturer at Sciences Po and a regular columnist at several international media outlets. Having studied aerospace engineering, he is also a private pilot and Colonel with the French Air Force People’s Reserve.

Matti has been heavily involved in effectively implementing the aims of the Estonian Presidency of the EU, the priorities of which include encouraging technological progress, from ensuring the availability and quality of electronic communications to developing cross-border e-commerce as well as digital public services. In addition, Matti works on implementing the Estonian Presidency’s initiatives in the field of migration, security and the EU neighbourhood policy, including fulfilling the objectives of the Eastern Partnership.

Marijke is a businesswoman and Board Member of the Mars Incorporated. She joined the family business in Los Angeles where she worked as regional manager at one of Mars Inc.’s pet food companies, Kal Kan Foods. Currently, Marijke works at Mars Food, which makes a dozen food brands including Uncle Ben’s and Suzi Wan. Last year, Mars Inc. launched the Sustainable in a Generation Plan. This plan sets new, transformational ambitions focused on a healthy planet, thriving people and nourishing wellbeing.

Frédéric is the Founder and President of BlaBlaCar, the leading European ridesharing community that connects drivers with empty seats and people travelling in the same direction, with the aim of making road travel social, cost effective and sustainable. The carpooling platform became the first French unicorn and has grown into a global community, with over 20 million members in 22 countries. Frédéric also currently serves as the Co-President Entrepreneur of France Digitale, the largest start-up association in Europe, where is work largely focuses on talent, impact and European tech sovereignty. Prior to founding BlaBlaCar, Frédéric was a scientific research at the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) in Japan. Frédéric is a regular speaker at international conferences and in the media, including CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC, on the themes of sustainable development, entrepreneurship, global marketplaces and building trust in online communities. He is also an accomplished classical pianist.

Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke is Founder & CEO of W4.org, a social enterprise dedicated to protecting girls’ and women’s human rights and promoting their empowerment around the world, with a focus on Sustainable Development Goal 5b: harnessing technologies. Nefesh-Clarke worked in human rights and development in Africa and Asia at Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, Enfants d’Asie, before founding W4. Named a “Women in IT Role Model” by the European Commission and one of the “Inspiring Fifty” women leaders in Europe’s technology sector, Nefesh-Clarke is a board member of the Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI), which aims to advance the work of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. She is also a Senior Fellow for Friends of Europe’s Connect Europe initiative, and a member of the advisory board of UN Women France.

Ricken is the founding President and Executive Director of Avaaz, a global civic organisation with the world’s largest online activist community. With over 48 million members, Avaaz is now the world’s largest activist network and a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere. The Avaaz community campaigns in 15 languages, served by a core team on 6 continents and thousands of volunteers. Avaaz empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change.

Muriel is the French Minister of Labour. Prior to assuming this role, she was managing director of Business France, a national agency dedicated to promoting the French economic interests abroad, general manager of human resources at Danone Group and assistant general manager of Dassault Systèmes. Muriel has been a force to be reckoned with in her efforts to reform labour rights and curb unemployment in France. Recently, she announced a call for projects, aimed at integrating and training of refugees in France, to apply for financial aid, up to a total of 15 million euros.

Within his mandate as the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders is responsible for ensuring the rule of law is upheld across the Commission’s portfolio, including the digital transformation, the green transition, as well as the rights of SMEs and consumer empowerment and protection. These efforts include the full implementation and enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its global outreach. A lawyer by training, Reynders has more than 20 years of political experience, having formerly served as the Belgian deputy prime minister, as well as the country’s minister for foreign affairs, foreign trade and European affairs; defence; and finance. He began his political career as a member of the Belgian parliament, prior to which he chaired the Belgian railway company and airways agency.

Pedro is attempting to restore the Spanish people’s trust in politics after being damaged by corruption scandals, Catalan separatism, and the 2008 financial crisis. Reaffirming Spain’s commitment to multilateralism, his government has created the High Committee for the 2030 Agenda to steer the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Spain. In addition, aiming to close the gender gap, he has appointed women to almost two-thirds of the original ministerial cabinet positions. He has also shown an open approach to migration and a firm stance against rising populism in Europe. 

Markus was appointed as the CEO of Covestro in 2018, where he also served as the Head of The Polyrethanes Segment, the Chief Innovation Officer and the Head of Innovation. Covestro develops sustainable solutions to the greatest challenges of our age: climate change, resource depletion, urban expansion, population growth and the resulting increase in awareness of environmental issues. These will inevitably lead to a higher demand for renewable energies, alternative resources, energy-efficient transportation, and sustainable, affordable housing.  

Alexander Stubb is President of the Republic of Finland. Prior to this role, Stubb served as Finland’s Prime Minister and previously served as the country’s finance minister, foreign minister and trade and Europe minister. Previously, Stubb was Director of the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and as the Vice President of the European Investment Bank.  

Appointed to his current position in July 2018, Rene is responsible for supporting the development of entrepreneurship, technology and innovation in Estonia, and also plays a key role in export development and trade security measures. Prior to his current appointment, he served as a member of the board of the EU’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, head of The Estonian Renewable Energy Association and member of the supervisory board of Eesti Energia. He previously worked as an advisor to the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy.

Shahin is Senior Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. He is also affiliated with the European Institute of the London School of Economics and is a member of the euro50 group, a group of senior current and former European policymakers in Europe. Prior to this Shahin was a Senior Economist at Soros Fund Management and he was also the Economic Advisor to the French Economy Minister until April 2015. Shahin has also been the Economic Advisor to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. In this capacity, he worked in particular on issues pertaining to European economic policy, the architecture of the euro area and the consequences of the economic and financial crisis.

Professor Frank Vandenbroucke is the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health. He has previously served the Belgian government as the deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs, minister of social affairs and pensions, and minister of employment and pensions. Vandenbroucke is the former vice-minister-president of the Government of Flanders and has also served as the Flemish minister for employment, education and training. Additionally, he has taken on academic positions at the University of Antwerp, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the University of Amsterdam.

Luca was elected as ETUC General Secretary in 2015, after four years as ETUC Confederal Secretary. His trade union experience encompasses 26 years at a regional, national and European level. Luca has taken part in negotiations at EU level on the European Pillar of Social Rights, the future of Europe, relaunching European social dialogue, public investment, economic governance and many other issues of importance to European workers.

Anna is the Secretary General of the European Youth Forum, which works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives by representing and advocating their needs and interest and those of their organisations. To overcome the challenges faced by young people, the European Youth Forum has three main goals: greater youth participation, stronger youth organisations and increased youth autonomy and inclusion. Prior to her current position, Anna served as the head of secretariat of the European Students’ Union (ESU).