In September 2015, Katarína Mathernová assumed her function as Deputy Director General of DG NEAR, the Directorate General for Neighbourhood & Enlargement Negotiations. She has previously served as Deputy Director General in DG Regional Policy, where she was in charge of Cohesion Policy Coordination between 2007 and 2010. Ms Mathernová has held senior management and advisory posts at the European Commission, the World Bank (2002-2004 and 2010-2014), and in the reform government in Slovakia (1998-2002), where she was Chief Institutional and Policy Adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, key architect of the Slovak economy's transformation. K. Mathernová holds a Juris Doctor degree from Comenius University in Bratislava, a Masters of Law degree from the University of Michigan, is a member of the New York Bar, and speaks six languages. She started her career in private practice of law in the US, with distinguished New York and Washington DC Law Firms. Her distinctions include the award Slovak Woman of the Year in 2000 and the Pro Bono Human Rights award in 1993 from the International Human Rights Law Group. She is a member of several Boards and the author of publications on Slovak and Czech economic and legal affairs.

Mathieu Bousquet is Head of the Unit ‘Thematic Support – An Economy that works for people, green, digital and connected’ in the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR). His team is responsible for the coordination and provision of thematic expertise and support to all geographical and horizontal Units in DG NEAR in the areas of economic development (including macroeconomics, trade, competitiveness, private sector development, human capital development and health), and connectivity (including environment and climate change, energy, transport and digital). Mathieu has experience in many East-European, African and Asian countries where he managed development assistance, under French and UN agencies, and since 2002 in the EU institutions. He also led a programme on combining governance and international trade. He holds an Msc in Agronomic sciences and an Msc in Water Engineering.

Aleksander Poniewierski is the EY Global Digital and Emerging Technologies Leader, responsible for leading consulting services. In this role, he is focused on the development of strategy, design and implementation of the new business model utilizing emerging technologies. He is a globally recognised thought leader in the field of cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection. He was recognised by IoT World as the IoT Solutions Leader of the Year 2020. Aleksander is a recognised author of bestselling publications on the dynamics of technology in the current age, author of many articles, as well as a renowned keynote speaker at multiple conferences related to Digital Business, Cybersecurity and New Technologies. He is the author of the book “SPEED no limits in the digital era” (www.speednolimits.com). Aleksander is an active lecturer at some of the most important Universities in the world such as Stanford University, UT Dallas, SGH, SSoE. He is an Advisory Council Member of the Center for Global Business at the University of Texas in Dallas (UDT). Aleksander graduated with a master’s degree in Information Technology from Upper Silesian University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Poznan University of Economics. Additionally, he has participated in many Executive Programmes provided by Harvard Business School, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University and LMD University.

Andrejs Dombrovskis has been a Deputy Director for Electronic Communications and Post regulation at the SPRK, the Latvian national regulatory authority for public utilities, for almost 18 years. He joined the authority in 2001 and was responsible for market regulation and international relations. He has been the SPRK contact point for Independent Regulators Group (IRG) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Before joining the national regulatory authority, he worked with the national competition authority the Competition Council. In various capacities, he has worked in international projects in the Western Balkans, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Andrejs has a degree from the University of Latvia in International Economic Relations, and completed a Master’s Degree in International Business.

Jesus Lozano is one of the high-level strategic advisors of the European Innovation Council in the high-tech sector, with 27 years of management experience as an expert in business model innovation and operations strategy with a focus on ICT start-ups. Jesus is the CEO and founder of several IT start-ups worldwide. As an angel investor and venture capitalist, he is investing in technology start-ups, with a present portfolio valuation of 34m EUR. Currently, he is combining his professional career with a passion to support start-ups through investing, conferences, workshops, and mentoring sessions in Universities and international events. Jesus is a co-author of the “Top Challenge Acceleration Program” methodology to support entrepreneurs from idea-stage to seed-stage.

Walter Trezek is an independent consultant in the digital commerce and logistics industry with over 35 years of experience. Walter’s official positions include Chairman of the Consultative Committee (CC) of the Universal Postal Union, Co-Chair of Ecommerce Europe responsible for eLogistics, Convenor and Secretary of the European Committee for Standardization of digital postal service (CEN/TC331 WG2) and adviser to the European Commission (Transport & Logistics, VAT, Customs, Postal Market). Walter is a also senior eCommerce expert of the EU4Digital Facility, where he contributes to facilitation and harmonisation of eCommerce among the Eastern partner countries and with the EU.

Valeriya Ionan is Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, in charge of the national digital literacy programme, development and growth of SMEs, online safety for children, and eurointegration. Valeriya and her team have launched several projects in Ukraine: “Diia.Digital Education” (a national online platform for digital education and digital education hubs all over the country) and “Diia.Business” (a national online platform for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support centres all over the country). Before working in the Ukrainian government, Valeriya was an entrepreneur. Together with a partner, she launched the Quadrate 28 company, which specialises on outsource teams for SMEs and has 250+ clients worldwide. She also launched MC Today, a first online magazine for entrepreneurs.

Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva has been Director at DG EAC since 2016. She is currently Director for Innovation, Digital Education and International Cooperation. She is responsible for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which are key components of the Horizon Programme. Under her supervision is also the coordination of the EU Digital Education Action Plan. The international cooperation covers all policy areas of DG EAC, including the international dimension of programmes such as Erasmus+, Creative Europe, and the European Solidarity Corps. Antoaneta joined the European Commission in 2008. She has occupied various management and expert positions across the Commission and dealt with a wide range of topics such as external relations and enlargement, internal security and police cooperation, cyber security, stakeholder relations and international affairs. Antoaneta has also worked as a diplomat to the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria to the EU in Brussels for five years. She is a graduate in political science of Sofia University, with training and qualifications in European studies from Germany (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung) and the UK (Sussex University).

As EY Global Learning Partner, Riaz prepares 300,000+ people for the future of work through initiatives such as the EY Tech MBA and EY Badges. Riaz, a qualified Chartered Accountant, joined EY in the UK in 1986 and was appointed as a Partner, Ernst & Young LLP UK in 1997. He has had a varied career at EY, working with global clients in Assurance and Consulting. Prior leadership roles have included Assurance Managing Partner, Ernst & Young LLP UK, COO for Markets, Ernst & Young LLP UK, and EY Global Talent Leader for Assurance. Riaz was the first EY Global Learning and Development Leader from 2008 to 2012. He led the development of EY’s first global programmes, such as Global NextGen, markets learning and milestone programmes. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an alumnus of Singularity University’s Executive Programme, and a member of Harvard Business School’s Global Alumni Board. Riaz is focused on preparing all EY people for the future so they can better help EY clients deal with a rapidly changing and increasingly challenging world. A key theme is the “democratization of education” – working to make education opportunities previously only accessible to an elite few available to all – through internal programmes such as EY Badges and the EY Tech MBA, which is the world’s first corporate MBA and is free of charge to all EY people. Riaz is also passionate about education outside of EY. He is the Founder and Chair of One Degree Academy, a state-funded free school in London which launched in September 2016 and aims to give access to a high-quality education to children from underserved backgrounds. He also volunteers as Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee at Ark Schools, a leading charity that runs a group of UK state schools in disadvantaged areas.

Lejla is the Team Leader for Innovation at UNDP Europe and Central Asia. She works on deploying system transformation frameworks to address complex development challenges. Her interests lie in how policy makers can embrace uncertainty and effectively deploy new approaches. Prior to UNDP, she worked with Norwegian development assistance and the World Bank in the area of human development.

Stephen works with governments and state-owned entities to create learning programmes that help governments serve their citizens and employees by providing opportunities to learn in-demand job skills for high-growth fields. Coursera has worked on workforce development programmes in more than 100 countries, and Stephen’s client base at Coursera includes public servants at ministries and agencies across Europe and Sub Saharan Africa on a wide variety of digital programmes. Before joining Coursera, Stephen worked for a number of educational technology companies, and led on a number of upskilling projects while at FutureLearn with the FCO, the British Council and The Institute of Coding and National Centre for Computing Education.

Hoa Binh Adjemian is the Head of Sector Economic Development and Digital Eastern Partnership Countries in the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (NEAR C1). He was previously the Head of Cooperation for the EU Delegation to Armenia, and Head of Infrastructure Section in Benin. Binh also has extensive experience in Public Private Partnerships in Asia. He has graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, l’Ecole Polythechnique and l’Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris with an MPP, M.Sc and M.Eng. He is married with three children.

Diana Jabłońska works at the European Commission, in DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). She has recently joined as Head of Unit for the team following Georgia, Moldova and the Economic Investment Plan for Easter Partnership. From 2016-2018, Diana was Deputy Head of Unit in the Unit contributing to the implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus and promoting regional cooperation under the Eastern Partnership. Just before joining the Georgia, Moldova and EIP team, Diana led the Institution Building Unit, TAIEX and Twinning, which mobilises Member States’ experts to support administrative reforms in Partner countries in line with EU priorities. Diana has been working in the European Commission since 2003 in different policy areas, including employment, education and the Erasmus + programme, regional policy and cohesion. She started her career in the Polish administration, where she was responsible for developing the first cohesion policy programmes.

Lars Erik Forsberg graduated from Gothenburg School of Economics in 1987 (international MBA) and was employed the same year by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He served at the Swedish Embassy in Colombia and in Spain before joining the EU integration directorate of the Ministry in 1993. In 1995, he started to work for the European Commission, first for 3 years in the Internal Market Directorate General, and then from 1999-2012 in the Directorate General for Enlargement, negotiating the chapter on Capital Movements for the Stabilisation and Association Agreements with Montenegro and Serbia and later as deputy head of the Serbia unit. As of 2015, Lars Erik is the deputy head in the international cooperation unit of the Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). Married with Helene Forsberg-Legrain, three children.

Arturas Piliponis is a Consulting Partner at EY, leading the EY Digital services dedicated to the EU institutions. Arturas has over 22 years of experience in managing complex eGov and digital transformation projects in Government and Public, and Financial and Telecommunication sectors, including Broadband. Over 15 years of his experience have been dedicated to providing assistance to national authorities in key areas of the digital economy and society in line with EU norms and best practices, including projects in the Eastern partner countries. His fields of expertise include strategy and organisation-wide business transformation, IT-enabled transformations including program and project management. As the Team Leader of the EU4Digital Facility programme, Arturas directs the execution of the programme activities in the Eastern partner countries across six thematic areas, overseeing a large team of international experts specialising in the digital domain. Arturas holds an MS in Finance from Kaunas University of Technology.

Juan Navas-Sabater is Lead Digital Development Specialist at the Vienna office of the World Bank, and member of the World Bank’s Digital Development Global Practice, having played a similar role in the Brussels office of the World Bank since 2015. He is Cluster Lead in charge of digital development operations in the Europe and Central Asia region, including those implemented with the support of the European Commission, and working at the intersection between ICT and transport as well as other sectors. Prior to this assignment, Juan was the World Bank’s Programme Leader for Sustainable Development in the Russian Federation, based in Moscow, and before that he was Regional ICT Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean in the ICT Sector Unit of the World Bank, based in Washington DC, where he worked since joining the Bank in 1998.

Besnik Limaj is the Team Leader of the EU-financed ‘EU4Digital: Cybersecurity EAST’ project, implemented by a consortium of GFA Consulting Group GmbH (DE/lead), E-Governance Academy Foundation (EE), Detecon International (DE), and Action Global (CY), and in partnership with the German Federal Office for Information Security (DE). He has an extensive background as a Team Leader and Senior IT Key Expert. He holds an MBA degree from the University of Sheffield and Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership from the from Chartered Management Institute in London. In addition to his formal education, Besnik is a certified expert for cyber security, holding a plethora of relevant certificates (TRANSITS I CSIRT Cyber Security Train-the- Trainers Training, Metasploit for Pentesters, Advanced Cyber Security Programme, Certified Information Systems Security Professional Training, Advanced Ethical Hacking, Certified Ethical Hacker, Wireless Hacking and Security). Furthermore, Besnik possesses in-depth knowledge of various programming languages and technologies (MS SQL Server 2000-2016, Oracle 11g and 12c, MySQL, ASP.NET, VB.NET, JDeveloper, ANSI SQL, XML, PHP, Apache, HTML, CSS), and he has been a speaker at and attended numerous international cyber security conferences. Besnik has travelled the world and come across various people and cultures from Hong Kong in the East to San Francisco in the West and is adaptable to a multicultural and international environment.

Irina Matthews joined GEANT’s Project Management team in September 2017. Previous professional experience includes delivering business objectives on a global scale (American Express), as well as project management aimed at adoption of learning technology and developing associated professional competencies for the non-profit sector (further education sector and local government UK). The main focus of her professional interests includes the transformative impact of technology for life-long learning; human capital development, organisational development and transforming communities via international development projects.

Andrejs Dombrovskis has been a Deputy Director for Electronic Communications and Post regulation at the SPRK, the Latvian national regulatory authority for public utilities, for almost 18 years. He joined the authority in 2001 and was responsible for market regulation and international relations. He has been the SPRK contact point for Independent Regulators Group (IRG) and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Before joining the national regulatory authority, he worked with the national competition authority the Competition Council. In various capacities, he has worked in international projects in the Western Balkans, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Andrejs has a degree from the University of Latvia in International Economic Relations, and completed a Master’s Degree in International Business.

Dr. Anna Pobol is the ICT Innovation Stream Leader based in Minsk, Belarus, and an expert in innovation policy and ecosystem development with a focus on digital innovations. She holds a PhD for her Dissertation on “Scientific and Technological Spin-off Entrepreneurship: Regularities of Functioning and Development” and has the title of Associate Professor. After 5 years of study and internships in Estonia, Poland, Germany, Austria and France, Anna Pobol was involved in a number of international projects for the Eurasian Economic Commission, European Commission, World Bank, UNDP, UNECE, National Bank and ministries of Belarus, carried out in the EaP region, covering the topics of innovation policy, digital markets and regulation and digital innovation ecosystem. Anna is now working as the Director for cooperation with the EU and EaP countries at the Scientific and technological association ‘INFOPARK’ (Belarus), and she is an Associate Professor at the Belarusian State University. As EU4Digital Facility ICT Innovation Stream Leader, Anna is responsible for supervision and guiding international teams, development of deliverables, quality control and strategic planning.

Martynas Daugirdas is a Senior Manager in Consulting services at EY Baltic. For more than 15 years, Martynas has been involved in various digital healthcare, digital government, public services interoperability and IT governance areas. Since 2019, Martynas has been part of the EU4Digital Facility as a team leader in the eHealth and Trust & Security streams. Martynas is working with his team across the Eastern partner countries to establish harmonised frameworks for eHealth among Eastern partner countries and with the EU, as well as on coordination of Trust & Security activities for cross-border eSignature piloting, development of common cybersecurity guidelines and development of framework for cross-border eServices enablement.

Rūta Šalvytė-Tamošiūnienė is an eGovernment and eServices development practitioner with over 10 years of professional experience in promoting thought-leadership in the domain of eGovernment. Rūta is a Senior Manager at EY Baltics and she has led leading major strategic transformation projects in Lithuania, Middle East and Eastern partner countries. As an eGovernment and eServices development expert, Rūta supports institutions to implement complex eGovernment and eServices projects on the state level with a focus on structuring the eServices and ‘e’ solutions that are interoperable on the national level and cross-border. In EU4Digital Facility, Rūta acts as Deputy Team Leader and eTrade Stream Leader responsible for organisational management and coordination of eTrade stream activities, such as cross-border eTrade (eDelivery), eCommerce, eCustoms, Digital Transport Corridor and eLogistics. In these areas, Rūta works with the team of other subject matter experts to facilitate and harmonise eTrade among the Eastern partner countries and with the EU. Rūta coordinated a detailed analysis of legal, technical standards areas and launch of practical solutions to address cross-border challenges of a national level. Rūta is a certified PRINCE2 practitioner and Agile Project Management Practitioner. She is a certified Business Process Management and Usability & User Experience expert and holds academic degrees in Finance and Economics.

Zane Martinsone is a Senior Project Manager with over 13 years of experience leading various large-scale national and international public and private sector transformation projects, and is currently leading the EU4Digital Digital Skills stream. One of Zane’s main focuses during the past years has been managing projects that deal with structural reforms both in Latvia and other countries, focusing on digital transformation as well as provision of new services and products. Within the Digital Skills Stream, Zane is helping the Eastern partner countries to improve the measurement of digital skills, adopt international digital competence frameworks and establish national coalitions.

Diana Jabłońska works at the European Commission, in DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR). She has recently joined as Head of Unit for the team following Georgia, Moldova and the Economic Investment Plan for Easter Partnership. From 2016-2018, Diana was Deputy Head of Unit in the Unit contributing to the implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus and promoting regional cooperation under the Eastern Partnership. Just before joining the Georgia, Moldova and EIP team, Diana led the Institution Building Unit, TAIEX and Twinning, which mobilises Member States’ experts to support administrative reforms in Partner countries in line with EU priorities. Diana has been working in the European Commission since 2003 in different policy areas, including employment, education and the Erasmus + programme, regional policy and cohesion. She started her career in the Polish administration, where she was responsible for developing the first cohesion policy programmes.

Andreas Dudler became Chair of the Board of the GÉANT Association in November 2020, after joining the Board in 2017. He has been Managing Director of the Swiss national research and education network SWITCH since May 2012, where he is responsible for the deployment of technology and the operation of services. Before becoming Managing Director, Andreas gave SWITCH and the Swiss academic community many years of commitment. As Chairman of the Foundation Council from 1999 to 2011, he was instrumental in establishing and expanding the foundation and its Education and Research Network. Andreas also works with ROKJ - a private Swiss social programme helping children suffering from poverty and social exclusion to develop to their full potential.

Paul Rouse was appointed Chief Community Relations Officer in early 2020, and is responsible for Partner and Stakeholder Relations, International Relations, Research Engagement, Community Support, and Learning and Development. Previously, as Head of Procurement, he oversaw extensive procurement activity relating to the pan-European GÉANT network, played a central role in the success of GÉANT’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service framework and in supporting research engagement with EUMETSAT, ESA and ESnet. His involvement and influence benefit numerous projects including EaPConnect, the Collaboration Asia-Europe-1 (CAE-1) 100Gbps link between Singapore and London, and the BELLA submarine cable linking Europe and Latin America.

Irina Matthews joined GEANT’s Project Management team in September 2017. Previous professional experience includes delivering business objectives on a global scale (American Express), as well as project management aimed at adoption of learning technology and developing associated professional competencies for the non-profit sector (further education sector and local government UK). The main focus of her professional interests includes the transformative impact of technology for life-long learning; human capital development, organisational development and transforming communities via international development projects.

Mrs. Pavlov is a Doctor of Historical Sciences. She has been working for the Ministry of Education and Research since 2002. The general activity profile is promotion of international relations in the field of education and research. In this context, the main activities are related to the development and diversification of the bilateral cooperation with the the countries of the world, international/regional organisations in order to promote the European integration and internationalisation of the national education and research systems (cooperation with the European Commission, the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)) CoE, UN organizations, CEI, Regional Council for Cooperation, BSEC, etc.); monitoring of the progresses made in implementation of the Association Agreement RM – EU, Eastern Partnership initiatives, Mobility Partnership between Republic of Moldova and European Union; promoting and monitoring the implementation of the EU Programs: Erasmus+ Horizon, eTwinning.

Peter Bogatencov is Chair of the Management Board at RENAM, the Research and Educational Networking Association of Moldova, where he is also a member of the governing Council since 1999. Peter is a specialist in information and communication technologies, optimisation of data processing frameworks, network virtualisation, securing of networks and information systems operation, operation of distributed computer systems, and application of distributed computing and HPC facilities for complex applications development and execution. He is the local coordinator for a number of EU projects, executive manager of NGI_MD, and is responsible for National Networking and Computing infrastructures operation and development. He represents Moldova in the GÉANT Association and other professional societies. He is author of 230+ publications and was awarded Honorary Diplomas by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova.

Mariana Harjevschi has worked at the B.P. Hasdeu Municipal Library since 1997, when she graduated in Library Science from Moldova State University. Passionate about her profession, Mariana managed to open the Public Law Library in 2001 – the first public library specialised in the field of jurisprudence – through a project supported by the Soros Foundation-Moldova. In 2012, elected for two mandates till 2019 as president of the Association of Librarians of the Republic of Moldova, she initiated projects such as the Librarians' Night campaign, the Summer Academy for Young Librarians, the Public Libraries Fair A Different Library and other major activities. Today, with a lot of perseverance and ambition, she wants to transpose to Moldova many of the initiatives and good practices discovered in various visits to libraries in the United States, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, etc. Courage, she always tells herself, when her agenda is too busy!

Yevhenii Preobrazhenskyi has been Executive Director of the Ukrainian Research and Academic Network, URAN Association, since June 2019. For the previous ten years he was Chief of the Technical Department at URAN, specialising in providing institutions, organisations and establishments of science, education and culture with information and networking services, enabling network users to realise their professional needs, and identifying and addressing technical issues in network operations. He played a key role in implementing key services and projects.

Leonid Levchuk is the Head of the Department of Experimental Studies in High Energy Particle and Nuclear Physics at the National Science Center (NSC) “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology” (KIPT). An important research direction of the department is participation in the CMS experiment at CERN, where L. Levchuk is the KIPT Team Leader. He has PhD in physics, and the area of his scientific interests, besides the main field of nuclear and particle physics, includes distributed high-performance computations and grid computing systems.

Octavian Rusu is Regional Manager (former General Manager) of the Romanian national research and education network RoEduNet. He is Associate Professor at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania, giving selected courses on Computer Networks, Operation Systems, Network Security and UNIX. Since 1996, he has also managed the Digital Communications Department responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of the university’s campus computer and telephony network. Octavian has been co-director for three NATO grants, Work Package or national leader in a number of EU-funded projects, and coordinator of CEENGINE. He was responsible for negotiation, planning and implementation of the DWDM national network for the Romanian NREN.

Raimundas Tuminauskas has been Head of Network and Service Infrastructure Department at PSNC, the Polish national research and education network (NREN), since February 2020, after joining the network as a Senior Researcher in June 2019. Previously affiliated with Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, Raimundas was responsible for planning, development, implementation, and day-to-day operation of the Lithuanian NREN network LITNET for 19 years, following various other roles since 1997. For three years he was a task leader for the joint research activity in the GÉANT Project (GN3Plus and GN4-1). Raimundas is the Chair of the GÉANT Programme Planning Committee and has been on the GÉANT Board since 2015.