Launching a new 'Vision for Europe'

Pascal Lamy is a French politician and the Vice President of the Paris Peace Forum, a new innovative global governance initiative. He served as the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) for two consecutive terms, prior to which he was the European commissioner for trade and head of cabinet for former Commission president, Jacques Delores. Currently an associate professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Lamy also frequently lectures at the Institut Jacques Delors and speaks on issues related to globalisation, global governance, international trade, international economics and regional integration. He has written several publications on the European Union and the ‘harmonising’ of globalisation and is a Trustee of Friends of Europe.

Alberto Alemanno is a leading voice on the democratization of the European Union. He’s currently the Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris and visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and at the University of Tokyo School of Public Policy. His research has been centred on how the law may be used to improve people’s lives, in particular through the adoption of power-shifting reforms countering social, economic, and political inequalities within European societies and beyond. He is a regular contributor to Le Monde, Bloomberg, Politico Europe, Forbes, and Il Sole 24 Ore, and his scholarly work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times, as well as Science and Nature.

Caroline de Gruyter is a well-known European affairs correspondent for the leading Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, currently based in Oslo. She is a regular commentator on the rise of populism, the use of the Internet in counter anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic messages on what the EU and its member states can do to create a greater sense of unity. An author of several books on Europe, she has been awarded three prestigious Dutch prizes and the Prix du Mérite Européen for political reporting of exceptional quality.

Prior to his current position of Global Head Consulting at Forvis Mazars Group, Jakob Haesler was the CEO and Co-Founder of Tinyclues SAS, a Paris-based software startup with the objective of industrialising datamining on Big Data with the help of advanced machine learning algorithms in a Cloud Computing environment. Previously, he was a partner and consultant at McKinsey & Company in Germany and France, where he worked on topics ranging from Banking to Public Sector Reform to Global Public Health issues, notably the creation and distribution of child HIV treatments. Haesler is also a founding partner of the ‘Cercle du Leadership’.

Throughout his carreer, Martin Porter has founded and headed numerous well-established initiatives. Having previously held the role of executive director at the European Climate Foundation (ECF), with a particular focus on the ECF’s EU and industrial innovation strategy, Porter has also led I24C, an initiative looking at sustainable industrial innovation and competitiveness. His experience also includes co-founding Brussels’s first ‘think-do tank’, known as The Centre; senior positions at Edelman, where he was General Manager of the Brussels office and Chair of the European Public Affairs Practice; and Senior Advisor on sustainability, industry and innovation at FTI Consulting Strategic Communication.

Retiring from NATO in September 2018 after 38 years at the organisation, Jamie Shea has occupied a number of senior positions at NATO across a wide range of areas, including external relations, press and media, and policy planning. As NATO’s spokesperson, he was the face of the alliance during the Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts. He later worked as the director of policy planning in the private office of former secretary general Rasmussen during the preparation of NATO’s 2010 Strategic Concept. Shea is also a regular lecturer and conference speaker on NATO and European security affairs.

Evelyne Huytebroeck is a Local Councillor in Brussels and a member of Parlement of the Brussels-Capital Region. Having joined the Belgian Green party Ecolo in 1982, she was first elected to Parliament in 1989. After serving as co-president of the party from 2002 to 2004, Huytebroeck was Regional Minister for Environment, Energy, Urban Regeneration, Youth and Aid to Individuals from 2004 to 2014. Huytebroeck has been actively involved in the Covenant of Mayors, taking on the role of Vice-president for two city-networks, Energycities and ICLEI, from 2010 to 2015.

Andrea Vitolo is the First Counselor to the Diplomatic Advisor to the Italian Prime Minister. In addition to having spent several years in the Italian ministry of Foreign Affairs, including in the Balkans Unit as National Representative for the Adriatic-Ionian and for the Alpine Macro-regional Strategies, Vitolo has served in several Italian embassies. His positions include that of Head of the Economic Section at the Italian Embassies to United Arab Emirates and to Austria, as well as overseeing the Political Section in Berlin.