Power Up conference 2019

Based in Brussels, Florence Ranson founded REDComms in 2018 to become an independent communications adviser, trainer and event moderator.

Florence has been active in European communications circles for some 30 years. She started her career as Project Manager for the European Commission, then worked as Secretary General and Director of Communications in various European organisations, including in the advertising, banking and agri-food sectors. She is specialised in advocacy in relation to the European institutions and works in both English and French.

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 VP for 10 years. She was awarded a 2018 ProPR Award for her contribution to the communication profession. She regularly speaks at events, moderates numerous international conferences and is a mentor to young professionals.

Reijo Kemppinen, born 1957, is the Director-General of Communication and Information in the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union.Mr Kemppinen was the Director of Communications of the EBRD in London from 2008 to 2010. Prior to that he was the Head of the European Commission's Representation in the United Kingdom (2005-2008) and in Finland (2004-2005).

Mr Kemppinen joined the European Commission in 2000 as a spokesman in external relations working for Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Chris Patten. In 2004 he was appointed the principal Spokesperson of the Commission as well as the Spokesman of the President Romano Prodi.

Before joining the Commission, Mr Kemppinen worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland as a Commercial Counsellor and from 1995 as the Press Counsellor and Spokesman of the Permanent Representation in the EU. He was the press officer of the Delegation that negotiated Finland's entry to the EU. Mr Kemppinen started his career as a journalist working for the MTV 10 O'Clock News in Finland and later on for the daily newspaper Uusi Suomi as the News Editor. He set up and managed the newspaper's office in Brussels from 1990 to 1992 also acting as a correspondent for BBC News in Finnish.

Mr Kemppinen is Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland and has published several books about the European Union, European Monetary Union and Belgium.

Virginija Langbakk is currently the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in Vilnius, Lithuania. EIGE is a regulatory agency of the European Union. It supports the EU and its Member States in promoting gender equality, fighting discrimination based on sex and raising awareness about gender issues.

Previously, Ms Langbakk worked as Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden. In her capacity as a gender expert, she has been involved in bringing the gender perspective into the public sector at local, regional and national levels in numerous countries worldwide. At the helm of the European Institute for Gender Equality since 2009, she is responsible for the management of both the administrative and operational structures. Her leading role includes developing and implementing the Institute's strategic programmes of activities and budgets. She aims at positioning the Institute as the most important knowledge centre for gender equality in the EU.

Ms Irena Moozova is a Director at the European Commission for Equality and Union Citizenship in its department for Justice (DG JUST).  She is a Czech national and joined the Commission in 2006 as Head of the EU Representation in Prague.

Between May 2010 and April 2017 she was heading the Unit in charge of supporting the Commission Representations in the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM).  From 1991 till 2006 she worked at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak/Czech Republic in various management positions, such as Head of the Department of Internal Administration (1993-1995), Deputy Director of the Department of the Human Rights (1999-2000) and as a team coordinator at the NATO Summit (2002).  She has served as Czech Deputy Ambassador in Madrid (1995-1998), Deputy Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the OSCE in Vienna (2000-2004), and as Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the UNESCO in Paris (2004-2006).

Ms Moozova graduated at the Prague Charles University Faculty of Law and has completed postgraduate studies at the Diplomatic Academy in Madrid.  She is married and has two daughters.

Evelyn Regner is a European politician of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and Member of the European Parliament, since she was firstly elected in 2009.

As trade unionist and feminist, Evelyn Regner's main focus has always been on labour- and women’s-related affairs. She is the voice of workers and taxpayers when it comes to regulation of companies and financial markets, and is standing up for women's rights and gender equality.

In her current mandate, she was elected chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and is a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON).

In 2015, Ambassador Marinaki [Greece] was appointed the first-ever Principal Advisor on Gender Issues and on the implementation on UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace and Security at the European External Action Service (EEAS). Prior to this she was the EEAS's Managing Director for Global and Multilateral Issues.

Previously she served as the Greek Permanent Representative to the OSCE. Her diplomatic experience includes stints as MFA Director on Justice/Home Affairs and Migration Issues, Deputy Director at the MFA Balkans Department, and the Diplomatic Office of the Greek Prime Minister. She also served at the Greek Embassy in Washington DC and as Consul General in Berlin.

A law graduate of the University of Athens, she holds an LL.M in International Law from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, and a joint MA Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the JF Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard Law School.

Ms. Dagmar Schumacher is the Director of the Brussels office of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women). The office in Brussels is responsible for liaising with EU institutions on joint advocacy, policy dialogue and joint programming.  

Prior to joining UN Women, Ms. Schumacher worked at the Headquarters of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Bonn as Chief of the Partnerships Section. From 1998 – 2002 she was working with UNDP in Hanoi, heading the Poverty and Social Development Unit. Prior to that she was working with the United Nations in Latin America and New York. 

Ms. Schumacher is a German citizen. She holds a Master Degree from Kiel University

Maria Stratigaki is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at Panteion University. She teaches gender, social policy and gender equality policies. Former Vice mayor of Athens for social policy and Equality (2014-2019).

She served as the Secretary General for Gender Equality at the Hellenic Ministry of Interior (2009-2012). From 1991 to 1999 she worked at the European Commission’s Unit for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men.

She has been Director of the Research Centre of Gender Equality- KETHI (1999-2002) and the Centre for Gender Studies at Panteion University (2004-2009). She has coordinated two European research projects (FP7): GeMIC (Gender, migration and intercultural interaction in the South East Europe) and MIG@NET (Migration, Gender and Digital Networks).

 Rosa Monteiro is Secretary of State for Citizenship and Equality in the Portuguese government.

Previously she was a councilwoman in the City Council of Viseu (2013-2017) and advisor on gender equality and citizenship in the Office of the Deputy Minister (2015-2017). She is an expert on gender equality and was vice-president of the Portuguese Women's Studies Association between 2012 and 2015.

She holds a PhD in State Sociology, Law and Administration from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, as well as a Master's degree in Families and Social Systems from the Miguel Torga Institute.

Alexandra Geese is a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA Group. She was elected in 2019 and is now a full member of the Committee on Budgets, as well as the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection.

Her political priorities are digital policy, non-discrimination of women and minorities in artificial intelligence, as well as gender budgeting.

Katarina Ivanković Knežević has been Director for Social Affairs in the European Commission's Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion since September 2018.  She is responsible for the modernisation of social protection systems and wider social policies fostering social and labour market inclusion through the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and other relevant social policies of the European Union.

Before joining the European Commission she was a State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Pensions System of the Republic of Croatia, where she was responsible for the implementation of the European Social Fund and other EU instruments.

For the last 20 years her professional interests have been human rights, gender equality, social policy and employment.

Esther Lynch was elected ETUC Deputy General Secretary at the Vienna Congress in May 2019 after four years as Confederal Secretary. She has extensive trade union experience at the Irish, European and international level, starting with her election as a shop steward in the 1980s. Before coming to the ETUC she was the Legislation and Social Affairs Officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), where she took part in negotiations on Ireland’s National Social Partner Agreements.

Esther’s responsibilities as Deputy General Secretary include social dialogue, collective bargaining and wage policy, trade union rights, gender equality and Brexit.

As Confederal Secretary she ran a successful EU-wide online campaign ‘Social Rights First’ that mobilised support for the European Pillar of Social Rights, led ETUC lobbying actions aimed at improving workers' rights in legislative initiatives such as the Transparent and Predicable Working Conditions Directive and the Whistleblowing Directive, spearheaded ETUC’s ‘Europe Needs a Pay Rise’ campaign, and helped secure the EU’s adoption of legally binding occupational exposure limits to protect workers from exposure to carcinogens. 

Eugenia Migliori is Principal Policy Adviser at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

She leads the Diversity and Inclusion campaign and supports UK businesses to be more diverse and inclusive. She leads CBI’s pay policy. Before joining the CBI, Eugenia was as a consultant at the UN IN New York.

She has extensive experience in the public sector drafting and implementing policies in Latin America. She is a Commissioner of the Gender-Equal Economy Commission. Eugenia has been one of the Fulbright Young Leaders and obtained the Chevening Scholarship to study a Master in Public Administration and Management in the UK (UCL).

Barbara Limanowska is a Senior Gender Mainstreaming Expert at the European Institute for Gender Equality. As Programme Coordinator of the gender mainstreaming programme she is responsible for the development of gender mainstreaming methods and tools, including tools for institutional transformation and tools to support the integration of  gender equality into various policy areas of the EU. Monitoring developments in the area of institutional mechanisms and gender mainstreaming is an integral part of this programme. 

Prior to this she was Regional Gender Adviser at the Regional UNDP Office in Bratislava.

In the past she has served as the Director of The National Women’s Information Center in Warsaw, as a consultant on anti-trafficking for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) in Bosnia Herzegovina, and as a senior anti-trafficking adviser to several UN and international agencies, including UNICEF, OSCE and UNDP.

Saila Ruuth is State Secretary to Minister of Social Affairs and Health Aino-Kaisa Pekonen.

Before her appointment as State Secretary, she worked in the Finnish Industrial Union as an expert in social affairs and working environment. Her other previous workplaces include the Ministry of Education and Culture, employment pension company Ilmarinen, and the unemployment fund of the Finnish Food Workers’ Union.

Ruuth holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences. She has served as the Chair of the Left Women in Finland, Member of the Executive Board of the European Left, and as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Left Alliance.

Anne Gaspard is the Executive Director of Equinet – European Network of Equality Bodies – since the establishment of the Equinet Secretariat in 2008.  Anne has been active and involved in the field of equality and non-discrimination at a European level since the start of her professional career, following her graduation in European studies and political science from University College London and Berlin Humboldt University.

Starting with the campaign of the European Year against Racism in 1997 for the European Parliament and a subsequent traineeship within the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) at the Council of Europe, Anne later managed the UK-based secretariat of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) to support its Chair from 1998 to 2000.

Anne was responsible for the implementation of various European anti-discrimination and equality projects while leading the European office of Focus Consultancy in Brussels for seven years.

Ana Sofia Fernandes is Vice-President of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), which brings together the women’s movement in Europe to influence the general public and European institutions in support of women’s human rights and equality between women and men. EWL is the largest European umbrella network of women’s associations in EU Member States and candidate countries, as well as 18 Europe-wide organisations. 

Ms. Fernandes is also President of the Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights and Advisor to the Portuguese Economic and Social Council. She is now a member of the Civil Society Gender Equality Reference Group (GRG) for the Spotlight Initiative, an EU-UN joint initiative to eliminate gender-based violence. Between 2010 and 2015, she worked at the European Institute for Gender Equality as Stakeholders’ Coordinator and Resource & Documentation Centre Officer. Her civic engagement dates from 2000, when she co-founded and was the first President of the Portuguese Network of Young People for Gender Equality.

A certified gender equality trainer, she has been a member of the consultative council of the Commission for Equality and Women’s Rights, a member of the General Assembly of the European Women’s Lobby and of the Board of the Association of Women from Meridional Europe. She majored in international relations and cooperation for development.

Maruša Gortnar is the Head of Operations at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). She was previously the head of the Equal Opportunities Department of the Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Before that she worked as a senior adviser within the same ministry (2012–2014) and at the Slovenian Government Office for Equal Opportunities (2002–2012).

Her areas of expertise include the following: management and organisation of the department’s work, project management; national gender equality policymaking including gender mainstreaming; coordination of work and cooperation with EU and international organisations in the area of gender equality; and management and cooperation at the national, EU and international level in expert project groups.

She was a member of the European Commission Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, the European Commission High-Level Group on Gender Mainstreaming, and the Slovenian Government’s Expert Council on Gender Equality and its Interministerial Working Group for Human Rights.