Mr. George Mitrakos

Mr. Mitrakos is Director General of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS). He holds an MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics (L.S.E.) and a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Mr. Mitrakos has worked as Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. He was also Special Advisor at the Ministry of Regional Development, Competitiveness and Shipping and the Ministry of State and Strategic Investments. Furthermore, he was a junior researcher at the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Ms. Alia El-Yassir

Ms. Alia El-Yassir (Canada) has been working with UN Women since 1997. Prior to assuming her role as Regional Director a.i for the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, she was the Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and UN Women Special Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), managing a complex portfolio of programmes and projects, as well as supporting the UNCT and HCT on establishing coordination mechanisms for tackling gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. She is part of the UNDG roster of gender experts and has supported other UNCTs in this capacity.

Before joining UN Women, she briefly worked with UNDP and was engaged in the education field. In addition to volunteering with a number of women’s and human rights NGOs, she has worked on educational media for children.

Alia El-Yassir graduated from McGill University in Montreal and pursued post-graduate studies in Education and Anthropology, with a specialization on Gender Studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Dr. Danica Purg

Professor Purg is President of IEDC-Bled School of Management, Slovenia, one of the most innovative international management schools in CEE. She also leads CEEMAN association of 225 management schools from 54 countries.

In 2010 she received the International Educator of the Year Award by the Academy of International Business for her outstanding achievements in international business education. In 2013 she became the Chair of the UN Global Compact PRME Steering Committee. In 2015 a special chapter about her leadership journey was published in the book “Women and Leadership Around the World”, authored by Dr. Susan Madsen. In April 2017 Academy of Management Review published an article “Why Art in Management Education? Questioning Meaning” that she co-authored with Dr. Ian Sutherland.

Professor Purg also holds three Doctor Honoris Causa titles. Her special field of interest is looking for inspirations for managers from art and other professions. She authored and co-authored several books and numerous articles on leadership issues.

Abstract

A change is not innovation if it is not sustainable

– Innovation and sustainability are embedded in the education and services of IEDC-Bled School of Management, as well in more and more other educational institutions;

– Sources and elements of innovative and sustainable management and leadership can be found in the arts.

Mr. Wim Mijs

Wim Mijs (1964) was appointed Chief Executive of the European Banking Federation in September 2014.

Between 2007 and 2014 Wim served as CEO of the Dutch banking association NVB. During this time he transformed the NVB into a modern industry association, positioning it as the key representative of the banking sector in the midst of the financial crisis.

Wim studied law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, specializing in European and International law. After his studies he worked for one year at the International Court of Arbitration at the Peace Palace in The Hague. In 1993 he joined ABN AMRO in Amsterdam before moving to Brussels to head up the bank’s EU liaison office. Wim moved back to The Hague in 2002 where he became the Head of Government Affairs for ABN AMRO.

Between 2011 and 2015 Wim served as Chairman of the International Banking Federation. From 2012 to 2014 he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the EBF. From 2013 to 2015 he was President of the Board of Euribor, now known as the European Money Market Institute.

Wim is married and has two children.

Mr. Georges Kremlis

Mr. Georges Kremlis started his career in the European Union in 1981. He was a Legal advisor (from January 1981) in the European Commission’s Legal Service, with an interruption of three years (1990-1993) in Greece. In that period he exercised the functions of Advisor to the Greek Minister of National Economy (1990), National Co-ordinator for the European Economic Community (EEC) internal market (1990-1992), Head of the EEC Committee under the Greek Prime Minister (1993), and Secretary General for European Affairs in the Ministry of National Economy (1993). During this period he was also a Member of the Greek Competition authority.

In 1995 he joined DG Environment. From 1995 to 2004 he served as Head of the Legal Unit, responsible for all legal issues in the DG, including, inter alia, the legality of new initiatives, the implementation of EC environmental legislation and investigation of national compliance with EC Directives and Regulations; handling of complaints, infringements, EU Ombudsman requests and Petitions. From 2004 to 2005 he was Head of the “Legal affairs and Governance” Unit, responsible for in-house legal advice, Århus Convention (access to environmental information, public participation and access to justice), Environmental Liability, Environmental Criminality, the IMPEL Network that he co-chaired, the Forum of Judges and the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the financing of NGO’s programme. From June 2005 to May 2013 he was the Head of the Unit “Cohesion Policy and Environmental Impact Assessments”, responsible for the overall integration of the environment in the Cohesion Policy (ERDF, ESF, Cohesion Fund), the Trans-European Networks for Energy and Transport, and EIB/EBRD loans.

In his current position, since June 2013, he is the Head of the “Mainstreaming and Environmental Assessments” Unit (former “Enforcement, Cohesion Policy & European Semester, Cluster 1” Unit), responsible for the enforcement of EU environmental law and of the compliance with environmental law of projects (and plans and programmes) co-financed by the EU as well as the evaluation of their impacts. He is also responsible for environmental integration in Cohesion Policy and the Trans-European Networks for Energy and Transport.

From March to August 2011, he served as Acting Director of the Directorate “Legal Affairs and Cohesion” and from June 2013 to January 2014 as Director ad interim of the Directorate “Implementation, Governance and Semester”.

In his current position, he is Chairman of the ENEA-MA (European Network of Environmental and Managing Authorities) and the EIA/SEA (Environmental Impact Assessment / Strategic Environmental Assessment) Experts Groups. He is also a Member of the Board of the Espoo Convention.

He has also served as a member of the Board of the National Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development in Greece, and as a member of the Greek Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE). He is Founding and Honorary President of the Hellenic Environmental Law Association.

He is a lawyer of the Greek Supreme Court and in the past he has been a Research fellow at the Centre of International Economic and European Law (1979-80), in Thessaloniki. He is visiting Professor in a number of universities, in Greece and abroad, especially in post-graduate studies. He is the co-author of a four volumes

Mr. Ivailo Kalfin

Mr. Ivailo Kalfin is Director of the Economy and International Relations Institute, Sofia and Senior lecturer at Varna University for Management.

He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Labour and Social Policy (2014-2016) and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005-2009) in the Government of Bulgaria.

Mr. Kalfin was member elected at the Bulgarian Parliament (1997-2016) and Member of the European Parliament (2009-2014). The main areas of activity of Ivailo Kalfin were foreign policy, budgets – at national and EU level and digital policy.

He was Vice-Chair of the EP Budgets Committee and EP’s rapporteur on the current Multiannual Financial Framework (2014-2020). He was also member of the High Level Group on the Own Resources in the EU budget, chaired by Mr. Mario Monti.

Currently he is a special advisor to EU Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger.

Dr. Maaike Okano-Heijmans

Maaike OKANO-HEIJMANS is a senior research fellow at the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’ in The Hague, which she joined in 2006. She is Clingendael’s scientific coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Research and Advice Network (#APRAN) for the European Commission and the European External Action Service.

Maaike is a regularly invited speaker at track 1.5 dialogues, think tanks and universities in Europe and Asia. She is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Leiden, where she teaches the course ‘Non-Western Diplomacy’ in the Master of Science in International Relations and Diplomacy (MIRD).

Her research interests are in economic diplomacy and international relations in East Asia, EU-Asia relations, and in consular affairs and diplomacy. Maaike contributed numerous research articles to international newspapers, journals and popular magazines. Her work has been published/translated in English, Dutch, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic.

Maaike obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and holds Master degrees from the University of Amsterdam and Waseda University in Tokyo.

For more details, visit Maaike’s personal page on the Clingendael website.