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Mrs Sukova is the Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. She is in charge of Funds, fair transition and analysis. Ms Sukova is an economist by education, with ample experience in the area of integration into the European Union both in the Government and non governmental sector.

After Bulgaria’s accession to the EU, Ms Sukova joined the Cabinet of Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva.

In August 2010 she was appointed Director in DG EMPL. She was in charge of the European Social Fund policy and legislation preparation, negotiations on the regulatory framework for the 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 programming periods.

Since March 2018, Mrs Sukova is the Deputy Director General of DG Employment, in charge of all funds in this directorate general, the biggest still is the European Social fund. She is also in charge of the coordination of social and economic policies in the EU in the framework of the European semester and the fairness of the twin green and digital transition.

Ilze Plavgo is Associate Professor of Economic Sociology, Public Policy, and Research Methodology at ESPOL since 2024. Before joining ESPOL, she was Junior Professor of Sociology of the Welfare State at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim in Germany.

Before that, she was a Research Fellow at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute, and a social and economic policy analyst at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti.

Her research interests centre on poverty and inequality in educational and employment opportunities, and on how educational systems and welfare state policies interact in shaping these, in Europe and Africa.

In her work she combines approaches from sociology, economics and public policy and uses statistical methods such as multilevel modelling and dynamic panel regressions.

She teaches courses on methodology in social sciences, applied statistics, public policy, welfare state change and challenges, social and labour market inequalities and poverty.

She also contributes to an ongoing ERC-funded project “Wellbeing Returns to Social Investment Recalibration” at the European University Institute in which she studies the potential of social investment policies to smoothen life-course transitions and reduce poverty and social inequalities in Europe.

Argyrios K. Pisiotis joined the European Commission from academia in 2005. A political scientist and investment economist by education, he worked on cohesion policy (2005-2010), and, from 2011 to 2018, led DG REGIO’s sector for accession negotiations and structural investments in enlargement countries. Since 2018 he has been working in the Analysis and Statistics unit of DG EMPL (mainly on the annual edition of Employment and Social Developments in Europe). He been DG EMPL’s correspondent in the Commission’s Strategic Foresight Network since its beginning in January 2020.

Florence Ranson is the founder of REDComms. She is a seasoned event presenter and moderator for clients ranging from European Institutions and Agencies to national/international structures and private organisations, including media and trade associations. She also is an experienced strategic & communications adviser and supports various organisations in the planning and development of their communications policies. Furthermore she regularly provides public speaking training to clients in the public and private sectors, always adapting to the specific circumstances of their assignments and their working language.  

Florence has been active in European communications circles for some 30 years, as Head /Director of communications in various sectors (advertising, banking, agri-food).  She was Chair of the Jury of the European Excellence Awards (communications) for 12 years and is a founding member of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD), where she served as Managing VP for 10 years. She was awarded a 2018 ProPR Award for her contribution to the European communication profession. She is perfectly bilingual and can work indifferently in English or French. 

I am Head of Institutional Policy at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). I am currently coordinating trade union activities in the EU Semester for coordination of economic, fiscal and social policies of the EU.

PhD in Labour Law, University of Pavia, I started working with the trade union movement as an expert on European labour law for the Italian Confederation CISL. From 2001 to 2006, I was the EWC’s coordinator for the European Federation of Agriculture, Food Industry and Tourism sectors (EFFAT).

My research activities in the field of social Europe were developed with the Italian Research Institute Sindnova and still continues inspired by my own European values. Proactive supporter of the EU project, I am currently member of the Board of the European Movement International.

Glenda leads the Skills and Future Readiness division at the OECD looking at how skill needs are changing in the labour market and identifying effective policy responses, particularly in the area of adult learning and on-the-job training for the AI and green transitions. Glenda’s team provides advice to countries, carries out comparative analysis and contributes to the development and analysis of the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC) and the accompanying employer module on skill gaps. Glenda also leads the Global Deal Support Unit, hosted by the OECD to promote social dialogue and sound industrial relations and foster inclusive growth. Glenda holds a PHD in Economics from the University of Oxford.

Dr. Lúcio Vinhas de Souza is the new director of the Economics department and Chief Economist of BusinessEurope in Brussels, Belgium. Before that, he was a visiting professor at Brandeis University and a eellow at Harvard University in the United States. Previously, Vinhas de Souza was head of the Economics department of an internal advisory body to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and managing director and global chief of Moody’s Investors Service at its headquarters in New York City. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Masters and Bachelor degrees in Economics from the NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal. He has over a 100 different publications in several languages and has spoken in hundreds of events for diverse audiences around the world.

Elizabeth Kuiper is associate director at the European Policy Centre. Her focus is on societal resilience and human capital, the nexus between pharmaceutical policy and economic security, gender- and diversity issues and sustainability.

Before joining the EPC, Kuiper was executive director at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), where she was leading the organisation’s external engagement.

Amongst others, she led the industry’s Brexit Task Force and created the Brexit4Patients multistakeholder coalition. Previously, she worked as attaché at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU in the field of health and worked amongst others as political adviser to the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sports in the Dutch cabinet Balkenende-IV.

Judith Kirton-Darling is general secretary of industriAll Europe, representing manufacturing, mining and energy workers from 39 European countries.

She was formerly a Labour Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England from 2014 to 2020. Before entering parliament, she was active for 15 years within the Labour and trade union movement, notably she was elected confederal secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation in 2011.

Member of the European parliament since 2019, Irene Tinagli has been Chair of the ECON Committee for five years between 2019 and 2024, when she was re-elected as member of the European Parliament.

She holds a BA in Management from Bocconi University, a Master of Science and a PhD in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She also participated in the Global Leadership Programme at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

After the PhD, she worked at the University of Madrid, as Assistant Professor of Management and Organizational Development from 2009 until 2013, when she was elected to the Italian Parliament. In the Italian Parliament, she served a five-year mandate dealing mostly with issues concerning labour, employment and the private sector.

Prior to her political engagement, she had worked as a consultant for regional and national European governments, the UN and the European Commission on the topics of innovation, creativity, talent attraction and management, urban and regional development.

She has been a columnist for Italian newspaper La Stampa and has published three books: Talento da Svendere (Einaudi, 2008), Un Futuro a Colori (Rizzoli, 2014) and La Grande Ignoranza (Rizzoli, 2019). In 2010 she was nominated Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and in 2012 Young European Leader by Friends of Europe.

Tanguy Desrousseaux is director of the Housing, Cities and Regions Department in the EIB’s Projects Directorate since October 2024. Prior to this, he has been working on Lending Operations at the EIB for 16 years, initially in the private sector to finance aerospace and automotive industrial corporates then in various public sectors to finance local authorities and public sector entities active in mobility, affordable housing, education and healthcare. In terms of geographies, Tanguy has been coordinating EIB’s activities in the Benelux, France, Ireland and the UK before Brexit.

ENRICO GIOVANNINI is full professor of Economic statistics and Sustainable development at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and professor and the National School of Administration (SNA). He was Minister of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility in the Draghi government (February 2021 – October 2022) and Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the Letta government (April 2013 – February 2014).

He is co-founder and Scientific Director of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), a coalition of more than 300 organisations established to implement in Italy the UN 2030 Agenda. He was Director of Statistics and Chief Statistician of the OECD (2001-2009) and President of the Italian Statistical Institute (2009-2013).

In October 2014, the President of the Italian Republic made him “Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica”, the highest ranking honour of the Italian Republic and in January 2023 he received a honorary PhD in “Sustainable development and climate change”.

He is the author of more than 130 articles published on national and international journals and seven books on statistical and economic topics.

Maxime Cerutti is Director of BUSINESSEUROPE’s Social Affairs department since 2012. He is responsible for a diverse portfolio of social affairs and labour market policy issues. He coordinates BUSINESSEUROPE’s engagement as a social partner for the European social dialogue.

Maxime joined BUSINESSEUROPE in November 2007 as social affairs adviser. Prior to this, he worked as a policy officer at the European Youth Forum in Brussels.

He started his career at the French ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. Graduated in European law and political science at the university of Bordeaux in France and the university of Canterbury, Maxime holds a Master degree from Sciences Po Paris. He speaks French, English, is at ease in Italian.

Maria João Rodrigues, former Portuguese Minister of Employment in Portugal of PM Antonio Guterres, is a European politician with a large track in different European institutions: EU Presidencies, Council, European Council, European Commission and, more recently, European Parliament where she was Vice-President of S&D Group, the second most important EP Group, in charge of the general coordination and interface with the other EU institutions.

She played a relevant role in several important European initiatives such as the Lisbon Treaty, the Lisbon and the Europe 2020 strategy (the EU’s agenda for growth and jobs), the Eurozone reform, the interface with EU strategic partners, the roadmap for EU’s future and, more recently, the European Pillar of Social Rights. She is now involved in developing the plans to respond to the COVID crisis.

She is currently the President of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), a European political foundation located in Brussels, financed by the EU budget to support EU policy-making and debate, with UN observer status and counting with a network of partners across Europe and the world.

In academic terms, she was a professor of European economic policies at the European Studies Institute – Université Libre de Bruxelles and in the Lisbon University Institute. She was also the chair of the European Commission Advisory Board for socio-economic sciences. She is the author of more than one hundred publications.

Carlo is a reporter working out of Brussels, writing about the European economy with the central banking team. Previously, he was a health policy reporter, where he covered the Covid-19 pandemic. He began his career in journalism writing for a local London paper.

Carlo studied Russian and philosophy at the University College London.

Mario Nava is the Director-General of DG EMPL of the EU Commission. Previously, he was the Director-General of DG REFORM and has held Director and Head of Unit posts in the DG for Financial Services. He was also President of Italian Financial Market Authority. He teaches at Bocconi University and at Solvay Business School. In 2023, he was awarded the title of Bocconi Alumnus of the year.

Barbara Kauffmann is Director for employment and social governance, analysis at the European Commission (DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion) since 2015. Her current responsibilities include the European Semester coordination, EU legislative initiatives including for a framework on minimum wages, as well as fair green and digital transition aspects. She is also in charge of the support of Greece and Cyprus notably through the European Social Fund. Barbara Kauffmann studied economics at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Florida (Ph.D.). After working at the Kiel Institute of World Economics and the German Ministry of Finance, she joined the Commission (DG for Economic and Financial Affairs) where she worked on country and fiscal surveillance.