ECAS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Finance and Administration Manager
- Administrator at IETM
In his position as Finance and Administration Manager, Abdallah's main responsibilities are
Abdallah is also Administrator at IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts), Brussels. Previously he was Administrative Assistant at ECAS and has 12 years' experience in banking and telecommunication management.Abdallah holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Accounting and is currently studying for a Master's degree in Management at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
As Project Coordinator, Anita's main responsibilities are:
ensuring timely and high-quality delivery of the projects' outputs and outcomes
organising the implementation of project activities
drafting narrative and financial reports
facilitating networks' establishment and exchange of experience and good practices with relevant partners
promoting project activities and results
Before joining ECAS, Anita worked for more than four years in the management of EU projects as well as operations and finance of European membership-based NGOs, including the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and Eurochild.
She holds a specialised master degrees in Management of Cultural Assets and Activities (Ca' Foscari University of Venice - ESCP Europe Business School, Paris) and a master degree's in Philosophy of Society, Arts and Communication (Ca' Foscari University of Venice).
As Executive Director of ECAS, Assya's main tasks are to:
Provide direction to the formulation and leadership to the achievement of the organisation's vision, mission, strategy and objectives;
Manage ECAS' day to day activities.
Assya Kavrakova has 20 years of experience in senior management positions in the non-governmental sector, including skills to manage diverse portfolios of projects and activities. She has excellent leading abilities in managing full-time employees, as well as a wide variety of expert networks that are mission and product delivery oriented. She possesses in-depth knowledge of EU Funding Rules and Procedures, EU structural and Cohesion Policy, Schengen regulatory framework, EU external policy decision-making, EU enlargement policy and leverage, European citizenship and Rights framework and EU civic participation formal and informal mechanisms.
Assya has a Master's degree in Law and another Master's degree in European Studies. She has served as the Director of European Policies and the Civic Participation Program at the Open Society Institute (OSI-S) in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 2000 to 2012 and as a Public Policies and Outreach Director at the Democracy Network Program (DemNet) of the USAID before that. She was also the Executive Director of the Bulgarian branch of Transparency International. Assya Kavrakova is a German Marshall Memorial Fellow.
As Senior Legal Manager, Claire Damilano's main tasks include:
Managing Your Europe Advice (YEA)
Human Resources
Providing legal advice for ECAS
Claire, who joined ECAS in 2001, is a qualified lawyer from France specialising in International and European Social law. She previously worked in the Human Resources department of a French NGO called AFIJ, and has also worked as a researcher for the University Paris X. She is also Vice President of the « Maison de l'Europe de la Grande Thiérache » (North of France).
Job Titles:
- Programme Director for Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE )
As a Programme Director for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Desislava Ivanova's main responsibilities include:
Managing the ECAS branch in CEE.
Managing ECAS' activities and projects in promoting EU values, rights and freedoms in CEE, including initiatives aimed at fostering the formation of cross-sector alliances to tackle disinformation.
Facilitating existing and building new partnerships with civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the region.
Fundraising to ensure sustainability and further upscale of ECAS' expertise and know-how in CEE.
Before joining ECAS, Desislava Ivanova has worked in the UN Agency for Refugees (Representation for EU Affairs) and in the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the EU in Brussels, Belgium.
She has experience in legal research and analysis, inter-institutional negotiations, strategic advocacy, building lasting relationships with stakeholders at the EU and the national level, planning and roll out of communication campaigns, and multi-stakeholder coordination in an operational context.
Desislava holds a Master's Degree in Law from Sofia University (with 4 semesters in Belgium and USA), and a European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) and Ca' Foscary University - Venice, Italy.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Senior Fellow
Dr Richard Youngs is a Senior Fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, based at Carnegie Europe. He works on EU foreign policy and on issues of international democracy. Youngs isalso a professor of international relations at the University of Warwick. Prior to joining Carnegie in July 2013, he was the Director of the European think tank FRIDE. He has held positions in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as an EU Marie Curie fellow.
He was a Senior Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC, from 2012 to 2013. Youngs has authored thirteen books. His most recent works are "Civic Activism Unleashed: New Hope or False Dawn for Democracy?" (Oxford University Press, 2019); "Europe Reset: New Directions for the EU" (I.B. Tauris, 2017) and "Europe's Eastern Crisis: The Geopolitics of Asymmetry" (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Job Titles:
- Programme Director - European Democracy
Programme Director - European Democracy, Elisa's main responsibilities are:
Supporting the Secretariat-General of the Commission in the development and implementation of the ECI Forum;
Development and implementation of EU projects related to Digital Democracy, Populism and Online Disinformation;
Publications and research projects on (digital) democracy in the EU;
Management of ECAS' Knowledge Centre;
Supporting ECAS' advocacy campaigns;
Before joining ECAS in September 2015, Elisa worked as a Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Union of European Federalists (UEF) and was previously a researcher for the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS). She has been an active member of numerous organisations and youth projects, especially in raising awareness on EU issues among citizens.
She holds a Master's Degree in European Studies with a specialisation in EU External Relations (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium).
Jean Denise Lambert is a former Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/European Free Alliance group. She was a member of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee working on issues including immigration, social inclusion, workers' rights, and free movement, and a substitute member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee. She was also the spokesperson for the Greens on asylum and refugees.
Jean's interests include democracy and human rights, refugee rights, anti-discrimination and social inclusion. She has also written a book on Green politics "No Change? No Chance".
Job Titles:
- Vice - Chairperson of the Board
- Founder of the EUobserver
Lisbeth Kirk if the founder of the EUobserver, one of Europe's most influential newspapers with a pan-European readership. She oversees strategic development of the organisation's business and news service, including cross-border and investigative journalism. She holds degrees from the Danish School of Media and Journalism and from Copenhagen Business School's leadership program.
Prior to EUobserver, she worked as a journalist, analyst, editor, and consultant for Danish media, including Notat and Danmarks Radio.
Malachy Vallely, a native of Belfast, with an academic background in business studies, has specialized since the mid 1970s in the management of not-for-profit organisations - universities, hospitals, museums and the performing arts in Ireland, the UK, Mainland Europe and Africa. He is President of the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, based in the historic Irish College (1607): he led the establishment of the Institute in the 1980s. He is past president of EUNIC Brussels and Europe of Cultures Forum. During his spare time he is a musician with Irish traditional/folk group ROSSA.
Marek Mračka is one of the founders of MEMO98, a Slovak NGO established in 1998 specialising in media monitoring.
Marek has a background in social sciences and has been following elections since 2001. He has participated in more than 40 OSCE/ODIHR or EU election observation missions, usually as Media analyst but also as Social Media Analyst, Press and Public Relations Officer, Deputy Head of a Mission or Deputy Chief Observer.
Marek has also been involved in technical assistance on election-related issues related to media freedom and media regulation/campaign coverage. He has provided technical assistance in several European countries, Afghanistan and most recently in Nauru.
As a Communication Manager at ECAS Marta's main responsibilities are:
Contribute to further developing and implementing ECAS' communication and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Manage ECAS' social media, website and mailings.
Coordinate ECAS' project-related communication and stakeholder engagement activities.
Proactively engage with the EU level media outlets and communication stakeholders to promote the ECAS' brand, accomplishments and contribution to its communities.
Before joining ECAS, Marta Azevedo Silva worked in communications and press roles for different organisations in Belgium, Malta, Portugal and Italy.
She has experience developing communication strategies, raising awareness through public outreach and advocacy campaigns, building lasting relationships with the media, and leading EU-funded projects' communication, dissemination and exploitation activities.
She holds a Master's Degree in Communications Sciences (with a semester in Rome), a Bachelor's degree in Media & Journalism (with a semester in Lille) and a Post-Graduate Degree in Public Health Communication.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Head of the Future of Democracy Programme
Paulina Fröhlich is Head of the Future of Democracy Programme. She directs innovative dialogue projects, such as "Europa Hört", designs and curates Innocracy, a conference on democratic transformation, and co-authors discussion papers, such as "Glotzt nicht so romantisch" and the study "Die Talkshow-Gesellschaft". Fröhlich also heads the development of the digital platform "European Hub for Civic Engagement".
Previously, Paulina worked in water management and development cooperation. In 2016 she co-founded the initiative "Kleiner Fünf".
Job Titles:
- Training Manager of Your Europe Advice
As Training Manager of Your Europe Advice, Pia is responsible for
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Executive Director of UiPath Foundation
Raluca Negulescu-Balaci is the Executive Director of UiPath Foundation, a global non-profit organization that empowers underprivileged children from Romania and India to reach their potential through access to 21st century oriented education.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator
- European Democracy Coordinator
Silvia is a project manager with experience in complex project coordination, development and communications in an international context.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Member of the Board
Stephen Boucher is the founder of Dreamocracy.
Before founding Dreamocracy, he worked as Managing Director of Fondation EURACTIV and previously as CEO of consoGlobe.com, France's largest online media on sustainable lifestyles. With a wealth of experience in policy-making, notably at EU level, Stephen is particularly concerned about the lack of trust in government and the media, and its implications for our democracies.
In this spirit, Stephen recently published the Petit manuel de créativité politique - Comment libérer l'audace collective ("Little handbook of political creativity"). He also currently teaches on matters related to policy innovation, civic techs and political influence at Sciences Po in Paris, at the Solvay Brussels School, at the ULB and at the UM6P School of Collective Intelligence.
A dual French-American citizen, Stephen graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and from Sciences Po Paris.
He was previously director for European policy at the European Climate Foundation (ECF). Before the ECF, he co-directed for four years the Jacques Delors Institute (then called Notre Europe).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Partner
- Board Member / Tone Oeyen
Tone Oeyen is a partner in the Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He specialises in European and Belgian competition law, with a particular focus on cross-border merger control and cartel enforcement. He also advises on abuse of dominance and state aid, as well as on general EU and international trade law and trade defence measures.
Tone has significant experience of complex merger proceedings before the European Commission and other global authorities, which often include the negotiation of remedies. His conduct practice covers anti-competitive behaviour in all areas, including issues raised by digital transformation, and he has successfully defended clients in cartel and state aid-related litigation before the Belgian and European courts.
Tone regularly advises on EU law related pro bono matters. He has been involved in proceedings before the European courts on behalf of private individuals and non-governmental organisations seeking access to documents held by the EU institutions. He is currently advising gay parents on obtaining equal parental leave rights from the EU institutions.
Tone studied law at the University of Ghent and holds an LL.M degree from the University of New York.