COMPASS - Key Persons


Charlotte Wagenaar

Job Titles:
  • Senior Communications Advisor at PharmAccess Foundation
Charlotte Wagenaar has an international background with experience in journalism, marketing and communications. At PharmAccess Foundation, she applies her expertise to addressing market inefficiencies in the healthcare sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Through an integrated, demand and supply-side approach, PharmAccess introduces clinical and business standards to improve quality of care, affordable loans and management training for healthcare providers as well as innovative mobile technology to enhance healthcare provision. Charlotte Wagenaar will provide COMPASS with expertise on global issues in the healthcare sector as well as on the role of innovations and institutions in building an inclusive healthcare market.

Dr. Mahmud Samandari

Job Titles:
  • Secretary General of Ethical Business Building the Future ( Ebbf )
Dr. Mahmud Samandari is a serial entrepreneur, trainer and coach in the areas of telecommunications and information technologies. In 1990, he co-founded ebbf, a global learning community that accompanies mindful individuals and groups through daily work and discourse to transform business and the economy, thereby contributing to a prosperous, just and sustainable civilisation. He has been active as an entrepreneur in the area of communication technologies, particularly in the context of interactive distance learning, with a focus on CSR and sustainable innovation. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, he has been active as a coach for start-ups and consultant to companies on values-based leadership and strategy. Mahmud Samandari will provide COMPASS with his expertise on entrepreneurship in the ICT industry as well as with his expert opinion on success factors and obstacles in the transformation process towards more sustainable business models.

Klaus Leisinger

Job Titles:
  • Founder of the GVA - Global Values Alliance
  • President of the Global Values Alliance
  • Professor of Sociology at the University of Basel
Klaus Leisinger is the President of the Global Values Alliance - a non-profit foundation with the mission to promote a sustainable globalization framework based on trans-culturally and inter-religiously accepted ethical standards. The GVA also engages in advocacy for the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development of the United Nations and promotes the integration of relevant targets into practical business management. Prior to this he was the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and CEO of the former Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development (NFSD). In addition to his work at the Global Values Alliance, Klaus Leisinger is Professor of Sociology at the University of Basel, where he pursues research and teaches a wide range of topics related to international development and health policy as well as business ethics, corporate responsibility, and business and human rights. Klaus Leisinger served UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General for the UN Global. He currently serves as an advisor to national and international organisations, such as the UN Sustainable Development Solution Network and the Pontifical Academy of Science (Vatican City). Klaus Leisinger will provide COMPASS with his expertise on global healthcare issues and on global societal challenges.

Maurizio Salvi

Job Titles:
  • Principal Administrator at the European Commission 's Joint Research Centre
Maurizio Salvi holds a PhD in Health Sciences (Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects -ELSA), a European PhD in biotechnology (ELSA, from the European Association for Higher Education in Biotechnology), a University Degree in Modern Literature, a University Degree in Philosophy of Science, and a post-degree specialisation diploma in Bioethics. At the European Commission (since 1998) his tasks included: deputy Head of the Unit on Ethics and Science; political advisor to President Barroso; Head of the European Group on Ethics of Science and New Technologies; Secretariat (advisory board by EU legislation); chair of the EC inter-service platform (ISG) on ethics and EU-policy (coordination of 20 EC services); lead of the Commission delegations with relevant third parties (in primis Council of Europe and UN Agencies); lead of the secretariat of the International Platform on ethics of science and technology -IDB- (EU 27, G20 and UN Agencies); lead of the Secretariat of the President's Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC); policy analyst on fundamental rights and ICT, foresight in different fields (education, industrial models, e-governance etc.). Maurizio Salvi has published extensively on governance of science and new technologies and the protection of fundamental rights in EU policies in Europe, the USA, Japan, South America and New Zealand (more than 50 scientific papers), and was a member of the Drafting Working Group of several EC policy papers (Nanotechnology, ERA, Life Science Strategy, Human embryonic stem cells etc.). He has been chief editor and co-author of 45 EC books, including EGE Opinions, EGE Round Tables reports, Ethically speaking (EC Newsletter on ethics), IBD reports, STAC Report etc. Dr Salvi has given speeches at conferences on governance of science and new technologies worldwide, and has organised more than 100 international events on the above issues (workshops, conferences, interinstitutional meetings; EGE meetings) with EU Member States, International Organisations (WHO, CIOMS, FAO, OECD, CDBI, EMBO, UNESCO, etc.), and has organised meetings on protection of fundamental rights in science and new technologies (EGE and NEC Forum) hosted by the European Union Council rotation Presidency (18 EU Council rotation Presidencies). Maurizio Salvi will provide COMPASS with a policy perspective on ethical, legal and social issues of emerging technologies, as well as with his expertise on the ethical implications of various fields of science.

Prof. Londa Schiebinger

Job Titles:
  • Director of the EU / US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment Project
Prof. Londa Schiebinger is the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science at Stanford University, and Director of the EU/US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment Project. Over the past thirty years, her work has been devoted to teasing apart three analytically distinct but interlocking pieces of the gender and science puzzle: the history of women's participation in science; gender in the structure of scientific institutions; and the gendering of human knowledge. She is an expert in incorporating sex and gender analysis into research and innovation. She has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. She presented the keynote address to the United Nations' Expert Group Meeting on Gender, Science, and Technology, September 2010 in Paris, and at the United Nations in New York, February 2011. Londa Schiebinger will provide COMPASS with her expertise in the area of gender issues in research and innovation as well as with insights into unconscious gender bias - and how to overcome it - in organisations.

Roger De Keersmaecker

Prof. De Keersmaecker has been research director of the Belgian National Science Foundation, teaching VLSI technology at KU Leuven, and Senior Vice President for Strategic Relations at IMEC, a world-leading research and technology provider in the area of nanoelectronics. From 1984 he was a member of the team that started IMEC and was the leader of a group developing all silicon technology process steps. From 1989 he was project manager for a frame contract with the European Space Agency and from 1992 for a suite of EC-funded R&D projects in the ESPRIT program. After retiring from IMEC as Senior Vice President for Strategic Relations in January 2014, he started "RDK Consulting & Coaching". He has a contract with IMEC as senior consultant and represents IMEC in various organising committees, boards and association councils (e.g. the European Semiconductor Industry Association, ESIA).

Sanja Popovic-Pantic

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of Woman Entrepreneurship at Enterprise Europe Network, President of the Association of Business Women in Serbia
  • National Consultant
Sanja Popovic Pantic obtained a PhD in female entrepreneurship in 2013 at the Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade. She has been chairing the Woman's Entrepreneurship Group within Enterprise Europe Network since May 2015. She is the leader of the biggest national association of female entrepreneurs in Serbia. She has been running the Association since 1998. During that time, nearly 200 projects have been realized in strengthening female entrepreneurial initiatives, projects, start up and established companies. She also has a strong academic background, and is employed as researcher at the Science and Technology Policy Research Center in Mihajlo Pupin Institute. She is author of two books addressing entrepreneurship, and of a number of scientific papers published in national and international journals and books. Sanja Popovic-Pantic is a respected national consultant in female entrepreneurship, specializing in innovation in the SME sector. The US Embassy in Serbia nominated her for The World of Difference 100 Award, which was delivered to Sanja by The International Alliance for Women in 2012. In the same year, she has been awarded with the respectable national award "PLANETA BIZNIS", a regional award for her contribution to the Development and Promotion of Entrepreneurship in the Western Balkans "Creators for Centuries". Sanja Popovic-Pantic will provide COMPASS with her expertise on entrepreneurship, innovation management, association development, and research & development.

Virginia Robano

Job Titles:
  • Policy Advisor
  • Researcher
  • Consultant to the OECD ( Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development, Directorate for Financial Affairs, and Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development )
Consultant to the OECD (Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development, Directorate for Financial Affairs, and Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development) Virginia Robano is a researcher and policy advisor on labour and development economics, entrepreneurship and SME finance. She is currently a lecturer of Development Economics at Sciences Po University. Previousl y she worked as an Economist at the World Bank, the OECD, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Central Bank of Uruguay. She has recently analysed the finance instruments suitable for tourism SMEs, the financing of tourism development in Mexico, the regulatory environment for SMEs and entrepreneurs in OECD countries, and other SME financing issues, including the role of public financial institutions in fostering access to finance for SMEs, and the suitability of crowdfunding as a finance instrument for SMEs. Virginia Robano will provide COMPASS with an economic perspective on innovation in SMEs, as well as with expert insights into finance issues specific to SMEs.