Pierre was Honorary Director-General of the European Commission, after having served as Director for North-South Relations and Head of Cabinet for both Commissioner Etienne Davignon (Vice-President) and Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy. He has then set up and managed the Brussels branch of the French Institute for International Relations (Eur-Ifri). He was also the Executive Director of the Madariaga - College of Europe Centre. He will equally a notorious economist (University of Liege, University of Louvain, Harvard University) and author, specialised in EU and international trade, economic governance, development, and relations with China. He was visiting professor at the University of Louvain, the College of Europe, Sciences Po Paris (Paris School of International Affairs), and Zhejiang University in China.

Nick is Senior Policy Advisor on Public Administration Reform & Service Delivery with OECD - SIGMA. He has 20 years of experience in public administration reform, capacity building, and organisational development as an academic, international consultant and trainer. He has worked in the Public Governance Institute of University of Leuven, and directed projects at the European Institute of Public Administration – notably the European Resource Centre for the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). He has undertaken an extensive list of projects, including services for the EU institutions and agencies, a number of the EU member states, candidate countries, third countries, and international organisations. He has also founded in 2017 the Public Sector Development Institute (PSDI), to support internationally public sector institutions with advice, training and learning activities, and applied research. He holds an MA degree in Political Science, and is fluent in English, Dutch and French.

Fernando is a senior administrator in the European Parliament, where he currently manages the classification of confidential information at the political, logistical, and inter-institutional levels. He has been a Head of Cabinet of the Secretary-General of the EP, an advisor on the statute and benefits of MEPs, an executive officer in the President’s Cabinet, and the Head of the Security Unit. He has served as an administrator in numerous EP committees dealing notably with Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Legal Affairs, and Constitutional/Institutional matters; he was also involved in legislative planning and coordination. He holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University in Madrid, and a degree in EU Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Christoph is Professor of Public Management at the University of Vaasa (Finland).  He was previously Visiting Professor at the University of Potsdam, Interim Professor at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen (D), Senior Scientific Advisor and Head of Unit in the OECD, Professor of Comparative Public Administration at the European Institute of Public Administration (NL), and Guest Professor at the College of Europe (B) and the University of Maastricht (NL). He is a long standing advisor to EU Presidencies, the EUPAN network, almost all EU Institutions, and national Governments on HR reforms and Ethics. He holds a PhD in Administrative Sciences from the University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer (D), a degree in International Relations (CIFE, France), and a Master in Political Sciences from the University of Hamburg (D). He was also Fellow at the Harvard Law School, Scholar at Oxford University, the German Ministry of the Interior, and visiting fellow at the American University and the University of Georgia (USA).

Frank holds a Master of Arts in European Studies and a Master of Laws in European Law from Maastricht University. He has worked at the European Parliament in the course of his academic education. He has further gained experience in interinstitutional negotiations and the decision-making dynamics while working at the European Institute of Public Administration in the Decision-making and negotiations unit. For eight years he has managed and contributed to various programmes destined to professionals and representatives from European institutions, national administrations, and third countries - notably Turkey, Canada, or Overseas Countries and Territories. He has also specialised in the development of interactive educational methods and tools that provide practical and hands-on learning experiences.

Paula is a professional negotiator. As a franco-colombian economist, She started her career with the macroeconomic analysis on Latin America and Southern European countries. She has developed a recognized expertise in international economic and geopolitical issues, and specialised in international and commercial negotiations. She notably operated as an international contentious contract negotiator. Paula has graduated in Business Administration from ESSEC Business School (Paris), and in International Economic Analysis from Paris Dauphine. She has followed the Clingendael International Security training. Paula has also been trained by and worked alongside former French special forces negotiators.

Bettina Steible (Montpellier, FR) is an assistant professor of law at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). She holds a PhD in law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) as well as a Bachelor of Laws and a Master’s in Public Law from the University of Montpellier. She also pursued a Master’s in European Law and Politics, a two-year bilingual program with mobility at the four partner universities (UAB – ES, Università degli Studi di Milano - IT, Uniwersytet Szczecinski – PL, and Université Montpellier I - FR). During her PhD, she went to UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall, USA) and Paris II Panthéon-Assas (FR) as visiting scholar. She also benefited from a four-year predoctoral scholarship at the UAB and a ‘Carlos V European Award – Sofia Corradi’ grant from the European Academy of Yuste Foundation. She further obtained the UAB PhD special prize and the 2018 Jaime Brunet Prize for the best doctoral thesis on the promotion of human rights. Apart from her teaching and research at the UOC, UAB and Pompeu Fabra University, she has worked for the European Institute of Public Administration, EuroMed Justice, and as a consultant. Her main research interests focus on European Constitutional Law and the protection of human rights in Europe.

Pierre is the Secretary-General of UPEI, an organisation representing nearly 2,000 European importers and wholesale/retail distributors of energy. He has also lead the Europump (European Association of Pump Manufacturers), Pneurop (European Association of Manufacturers of Compressors and Vacuum Pumps), and EIA (European Irrigation Association). He is a former manager at Orgalim, the European Technology Industries Association; in charge specifically of its industrial policy and digitisation activities. He is a member of the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence set up by the European Commission. Since 1990 he has been representing the European engineering and electronic industries in various industry associations, notably SEMI Europe (microelectronics) and T&D Europe (Electricity Transmission and Distribution Equipment). He has contributed to a number of strategic papers, notably the White Paper on the European semiconductor equipment and materials industry; and Electra II, the electrical engineering sectoral industrial policy strategy.  He holds degrees from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris, the Free University of Berlin, and the College of Europe.

Muriel is a highly skilled international conference and business interpreter specialised in training and communications. She has nearly 29 years of experience working for EU lobbying associations and agencies, international organisations, and global companies. The conferences she has worked as an interpreter cover topics as diverse as fisheries, public health, and neighbourhood policy with MEP’s; policy-making processes in the fields of agriculture, pensions, environment, and Overseas Countries and Territories for the European Commission. She also has been working with EU agencies such as Eurojust and EASA; EU level social partners; food and agriculture interest groups; UNICEF, UNDP and ILO; and major financial services companies. Muriel also offers precious expertise in RSI (remote simultaneous interpreting) and community interpreting. She is additionally an interpreter trainer at the University of Liège (B) where she teaches simultaneous and consecutive interpreting in several Master programmes.

Before becoming a senior EU law and negotiations expert and visiting lecturer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Peter worked as Director for EIPA’s European Centre for Judges and Lawyers in Luxembourg, Business Development Manager at EIPA’s HQ in Maastricht and Head of the International Department of the Danish School of Public Administration (DSPA).

Throughout his career, Peter has worked with EU law and worked with, negotiated in and delivered training to multi-national forums, groups and teams. At the DSPA and EIPA, he covered EU and EEA law topics, EU decision-making, and International and EU negotiations - incl. EU Presidency training. Peter has also led various EU and Luxembourg funded institution and capacity building projects in nearly all the countries which joined the EU since 1995, and the current EU candidate countries in the West Balkans and Türkyie.

Mikko is founder of Faktabaari (FactBar), an awarded and medaled (Chydenius, Bonnier, Europcom) fact-checking service; he is a co-founder of NewsBeez, and a EU Senior Advisor for the Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT) in Finland. He contributes to the European Commission’s High-Level Group on Fake News and Online disinformation, to the expert group on media literacy, as well as several international networks. He offers more than 25 years of experience working for four EU institutions -including the European Commission, national ministries - notably the Prime Minister’s Office, universities, associations and media. He was also seconded to the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) to contribute to the training of incoming EU Presidencies and EU officials. He is recognised as an independent EU expert and strategic advocate of transparency and accountability with special sectoral knowledge in sustainability, climate, digital solutions and media innovation. Mikko has also been undertaking several evaluation projects for the European Commission. He is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Helsinki, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris, and the College of Europe.

Bellinda has managed HR Projects and government affairs for more than 20 years within European, US, and Japanese global companies operating on the markets of smart technologies, IT services, banking, food, retail, logistics, and automotive sectors. She has successfully lead projects relating to strategic HR policy, wellbeing, engagement, health, DEI, and ESG. Her skills extend to change management (in processes of merger, spin-off, new organization design, and new ways of working); internal communication schemes after change; the improvement and digitalization of HRM systems; and advisory services pertaining to social dialogue (Directors/Board committees and Work’s Council - national or European - and H&S Committees). She is fluent in French, English and Dutch, with a good understanding of German. She holds a Master in Labour Sciences and Management and a Master in International Relations and Administration from UCLouvain, and also a Master in European Policies for the College of Europe.

Nicolas is a consultant for the World Bank and the UNDP, and a former Director of the Public Finance and State reform in the bilateral cooperation department of the French Ministry of Finances. He was also a Senior Lecturer at the European Institute of Public Administration. He has worked as a senior international civil servant in the Public Governance Directorate of the OECD for 20 years. He has advised several governments in EU Member States, countries and entities from the Balkans, international organizations, and European institutions. He has just led a multiyear 3,79 Mio EUR advisory project in the Middle-East, North Africa and the Caucasus. He was recently an advisor to the Interior Minister of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He is a Senior Executive fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; he has graduated in Economics from the University of Lausanne, Human Resources in Paris IX Dauphine, and the College of Europe (Economics). He also holds certificates of General Management of INSEAD, and Data Sciences from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris.

Florence has been active in European communications for some 30 years. She started her career as Project Manager for the European Commission, by setting up and running Team Europe for the Directorate General Communications; She then worked as Secretary General and Director of Communications in various lobby organizations; in the advertising (EAT), banking (EBF) and agri-food sectors (FoodDrinkEurope). She is specialized in communication campaigns, advocacy, crisis management, and public speaking. She carried out interviews with television, radio and written press; whilst also coaching senior executives and young professionals. She founded REDComms in 2018 to become an independent communications adviser, trainer and event moderator. Florence is Chair of the Jury of the European Excellence Awards and a founding member of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), where she was Managing Vice-President for 10 years. She was awarded a 2018 ProPR Award for her contribution to the communication profession.

Alain has directed the Programme on European Negotiations at the European Institute of Public Administration for 20 years. Over that period he has helped prepare every Presidency of the Council, trained and worked with hundreds of EU and national officials on strategic and individual negotiation techniques. He has been advising Diplomatic academies, national ministries, EU institutions and agencies -and committees, regional offices, third countries, business executives and social partners.  He has been teaching EU Policy-Making, Negotiation Theory, and International Negotiations as a Visiting Professor in several European universities. He has also previously directed an EU Law Office in Brussels and managed litigations. His publications cover a wide range of policy-making processes. He holds a PhD from the University of Louvain, two master degrees from the College of Europe, and has graduated in International Public Affairs. He also holds certificates in negotiation strategies from the Kellogg School of Management and the American Graduate University.