Kateřina Svíčková

Kateřina Svíčková has more than 15 years of experience in the European Commission where she has worked on policy development, implementation, analysis and design in various areas such as security, knowledge for policy, rule of law and gender equality. In her current role as Head of Sector for Gender in the Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, she steers the development and implementation of policies aiming to achieve gender equality in research and innovation in the European Research Area.

Charikleia (Charoula) Tzanakou

Charikleia (Charoula) Tzanakou is the Director for the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice and Reader in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, at Oxford Brookes University. Charoula has led and collaborated on various European and international projects on gender equality, diversity and organisational change. She is an experienced trainer and consultant on gender equality, co-creation methods anddiversity management across different sectors (higher education; retail, hospitality and leisure; investment and savings). She is currently the PI on a collaborative UK-Brazil project on parenthood policies and initiatives in UK-Brazil higher education and the scientific coordinator of an upcoming EU project on inclusive gender equality plans in South East Europe.

Daniela Bolzani

Daniela Bolzani obtained a Ph.D. in Business Management after 5 years of work in the domain of financial audit and of development cooperation in Europe and Africa. She is currently Associate Professor in Management at the University of Bologna, and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Bologna Business School. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Colorado and HEC Paris; and visiting professor at JUNIA-ISA Lille. Her research lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship, diversity, and social inclusion. She coordinates and is a member of national and international projects and has been a consultant for the OECD and UN-IOM.

Carolina Wienand

Carolina Wienand works in the field of gender/diversity and innovation research in the private sector. Furthermore, she is involved in the evaluation of projects. Carolina studied Regional Studies of Latin America and Social Sciences. Currently, she is doing her PhD anaylsing the effects of diversity in innovation processes.

Hanneke Takkenberg

Hanneke Takkenberg is Professor of Management Education focusing on Women in Business at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) and Executive Director of Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO).

In these roles her work includes leading RSM’s participation in the European Commission-funded Horizon2020 EQUAL4EUROPE research project, developing and facilitating ECWO’s social safety programme for organisations, and facilitating within ECWO’s programmes, including its trio of signature Executive Education programmes, in-company programmes and gender-balanced leadership events. Prof. Hanneke additionally works with RSM Masters and PhD students who are researching different aspects of gender as a supervisor, research co-creator and reader.

Since 2012, Prof. Takkenberg has been Professor of Clinical Decision Making in Cardio-Thoracic Interventions at Erasmus University Medical Center where her current research focuses on prognosis and clinical and shared decision making in cardiovascular interventions, with special attention to male-female differences. At Erasmus MC, Prof. Takkenberg has worked to improve healthcare for women for patients and working conditions for female medical doctors. For that she was recognised with the 2018 Els Borst award for her scientific and societal efforts. In 2019, she received the Caty Asscher award for her efforts to achieve gender diversity in the Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam. This was through the founding of VENA (2006), the Erasmus MC network for women in academia, her work as Chief Diversity Officer for EUR (2015-2018) and her initiation of the Diversity and Inclusion programme for the Erasmus MC in 2018.

From 2018 to 2022, Prof. Takkenberg was chair of board of the Dutch Network for Women Professors (LNVH) – a network of over 1300 women professors and associate professors.

Joanna Vassilopoulou

Dr Vassilopoulou is Professor of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, and the Head of the Organisations and People Department at Brunel Business School (BBS), Brunel University London. Her research focuses on equality, diversity & inclusion, gender, migration, AI & diversity and precarious work from a critical and international comparative perspective. She has been part of grants in the field of diversity and inclusion with a total value of over £2.5 million, such as for the OECD, the European Academy of Management (EURAM), EU Horizon2020 and EU Erasmus+.

She is the Co-Founder of the Centre for Inclusion at Work (CEFI) in Athens, Greece.
Joana Vassilopoulou has an established academic and professional record in the field of diversity and inclusion, is frequently invited to deliver talks and has organised and hosted the international Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) conference twice. Joana served as an editor at the Work, Employment and Society (WES) Journal from 2020-2024 and from 2015 to 2020, she served as an Associate Editor of the European Management Review (EMR) and was a board member of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) and the UK National Representative of EURAM. She has published over 50 publications in edited collections and journals such as Human Resource Management Journal, Work, Employment and Society, European Journal of Industrial Relations, International Business Review and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.

She is an associated faculty member at the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam/Netherlands, and she has held visiting Professorships at Dauphine University, Paris /France, MCI Innsbruck (Austria), and the University of Wuppertal (Germany).

Nada Genadry

Nada Genadry is a senior executive in HR, Organizational Development, Organizational Culture, Change Management, CSR and Gender Equality, who has studied, lived and worked in Canada, France, and Lebanon. She is the CHRO of Siren Associates & Siren Analytics, an ensemble of companies which offer boutique consultancy and technology services to public administrations in Lebanon and Jordan. Prior to that, Nada served as the HR Director of LibanPost, Debbane Group, and Hotel-Dieu de France Hospital. Throughout her career, she has operated in various industries, in Lebanon and the region, at a group and company level, for family businesses, private, privatized, and not-for-profit setups. Nada is a Member of the Board of Siren Analytics, an Advisory Board Member for the HR Programme at the OSB of AUB, and for the Faculty of Business and Management of Balamand Lebanon. She also practices Conflict Mediation as well as Executive Coaching. Prior to that, Nada has contributed to innovative applied research in the Organizational Behavior field with the INSEAD Business School in France, and has facilitated Master’s level HR courses and conferences.

Simón Perera del Rosario

BSc in Biotechnology and a MSc in Biological Anthropology. Business Development Director at ProtoQSAR (SME specializing in computational chemistry, drug design and development, structural bioinformatics, and computational toxicology). Currently a PhD candidate at UPF (Lab of Genomics of Individuality, Institute of Evolutionary Biology). Secretary general of PRISMA and co-director of the cultural project “Una Mirada LGTBIQA+” (“An LGBTQIA+ Regard”), and curator of exhibitions and interventions on LGBTQIA+ topics on the Catalan Museum of Archaeology, Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona, Planetarium of Pamplona, and Maritime Museum of Barcelona (among others), as well as director of the outreach event “BCNspiracy”. Previously served as a project manager and business developer at Anaxomics (bioinformatics, systems biology), an associate professor at UAB (Dept. of Biological Anthropology), responsible for European projects and coordinator of Bioinformatics Barcelona (a consortium related to bioinformatics), and a scientific communication technician at UPF (project “Science in Your World”). Board member of the Biotechnology Communicators Association (ComunicaBiotec), and collaborator with the Spanish Association for Science Communication (AEC2), Association “Science in Parliament”, the Catalan Association for Science Communication (ACCC), and the science communication associations “Hablando de Ciencia” and “Scenio”.

Jelena Angelis

Dr Jelena Angelis is a qualified economist working in the field of research and innovation policy formation and implementation. Currently she is works for a research lab EFIS Centre (Belgium) and the Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden).

Over the 20 years professional experience, Jelena has provided advice and assistance to the European Commission, OECD, the World Bank, government departments and ministries, regional development, economic and enterprise development agencies and universities. Her areas of interest include policy-making for the benefits of the society, socio-economic impacts of publicly funded interventions, and open science. Over the years Jelena has been involved in the design of national R&I programmes; reviews of national and regional research and innovation systems; impact assessment and evaluation of such programmes and policies (e.g. Study on the impact of entrepreneurship education strategies and measures); hands-on activities in setting up needed functions; and monitoring of the use of funding.
Jelena is well familiar with the H2020/HE support to Innovative Europe as a reviewer of proposals as well as a participant in several H2020-funded projects.

In the inclusion and equality topic, she was involved in the Pilot assessment activities for the European knowledge and support facility on Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in research and innovation organisations for DG RTD. The study documented and analysed recent policy developments regarding GEPs in R&I organisations in order to support the renewed priority on gender equality set for the new ERA and the strategic development of its related policy agenda and monitoring framework. On a more hands-on level, Jelena is part of the SSE team in the H2020 funded project Targeted-MPI: Transparent And Resilient Gender Equality Through Integrated Monitoring Planning and Implementation focusing specifically on institutional changes through the development and effective implementation of GEPs in Business and Management (B&M) schools to drive more inclusive, sustainable and transparent academic cultures. To link policy advice, research and practice, Jelena has attended workshops on norm-criticism and a dedicated 5-month course ‘The Inclusive Classroom’.

Jelena holds a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge (Judge Business School); Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in economics from Vilnius Univeristy (Lithuania).

Mustafa F. Özbilgin

Mustafa F. Özbilgin is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Brunel Business School, London. His research focuses on equality, diversity and inclusion at work from comparative and relational perspectives.

Athanasia (Nancy) Pouloudi

Athanasia (Nancy) Pouloudi is Professor of Information Systems Management and Vice-Rector of international Cooperation and Growth at the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. She is the Immediate Past President of the global Association for Information Systems (AIS), where she had previously served as President (2023-2024), President-Elect (2022-2023) and Region 2 (Europe/Middle East/Africa) Representative (2010-2013). She holds a PhD in Information Systems from the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on organizational and social issues in information systems adoption and implementation. She has worked in a number of European Union funded projects on e-business, e-government, digital health and e-society, most recently studying children’s digital maturity (digymatex.eu) and gender equality in business schools (targeted-mpi.eu). She is a Senior Editor of the European Journal of Information Systems and member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of the AIS, Health Policy & Technology, and the International Journal of Society, Information, Communication & Ethics. She has served for several years on the Committees of the European (ECIS) and the Mediterranean (MCIS) Conference on Information Systems. Her international academic service has been recognized by the 2016 AIS Sandra Slaughter Service Award and the 2020 AIS Technology Challenge Award.

Ella Oelbrandt

Ella Oelbrandt (°2000) is a research assistant for several projects at the Brussels Institute for Social and Population Issues (BRISPO), at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Working on topics like gender inequality and well-being in the workplace, she wishes to develop practical policy initiatives that enhances the working conditions of employees. Her broaderer research interests include urban planning, visual methods and photography.

Sophie Alkhaled

Dr Sophie Alkhaled is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and the Director of the Academy for Gender, Work and Leadership at Lancaster University Management School. Her research examines the intersectionality of gender, entrepreneurship and empowerment, and their collective impact as a catalyst for social change and poverty alleviation in the Middle East. She is an Associate Editor at Gender, Work and Organization and has published work in the Journal of International Business Studies, Organization Studies, Gender, Work and Organization and Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. She teaches gender equality and social justice in work and entrepreneurship on undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA programmes.

Fida Afiouni

Fida Afiouni is a Professor of HRM at the Olayan School of Business and currently serves as Associate Provost. Fida is also a title IX deputy, a trained investigator in sexual harassment and discrimination, and serves on the steering committee of the diversity, equity and inclusion office at AUB. Her publications, at the intersection of HRM, careers, and gender, have won multiple awards and appeared in leading journals in her field. Fida currently serves as HRM section co-editor in the journal of Business Ethics, and previously as Associate Editor in the International Journal of Human Resource Management. She is also an editorial member in Career Development International and Human Resource Management Journal. In addition to her academic role, Fida also serves on the board of directors of the Lebanese League for Women in Business.

Joël Branson

Since 2009, Joël Branson in the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Solvay Business School, the largest faculty of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Within this position, he is responsible for the policy direction of the faculty and the adherence to the central VUB policies. Additionally, he is also a Professor in Accounting in the Business department.

Katharina Buse

Katharina Buse is a Project Advisor within the unit ‘Reforming European Research & Innovation and Research Infrastructure’ of the European Research Executive Agency (REA). She is one REA’s internal Gender Focal Points and her portfolio includes a wide range of gender equality projects funded under H2020 and Horizon Europe. Before joining REA, Katharina Buse has worked for different national public services and European institutions in both policy and programme management positions. She holds a Master in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin and a Master in Public Administration from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Strasbourg/France.