The challenge of identities

Ahmed Abdirahman is the founder and CEO of the Järvaveckan Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting inclusivity across social, economic, and political spheres. His foundation organizes Järvaveckan, a major democracy and political festival in Sweden’s political calendar that brings together over 300 organizations and attracts more than 60,000 attendees each summer. The event fosters connections among citizens, politicians, civil society, business leaders, and public authorities. Somali-born, Abdirahman previously served as a policy expert on social sustainability at the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, focusing on advancing integration initiatives.

Francesca Cavallo is a bestselling author of children’s books, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Undercats Media. She is the co-creator of ‘Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls’, a collection of 100 tales of extraordinary women that has become a publishing sensation. Cavallo’s career began in theatre, where she worked as both a manager for a theatre company and as a playwright. In 2012, she moved to California to co-found a children’s media start-up called Timbuktu Labs, Inc. Since then, she has authored nine picture books that have been translated into more than 47 languages. Her most recent international bestseller is the children’s book ‘Doctor Li and the Crown-wearing Virus’.

Jasminko Halilović is a leading conflict researcher from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who compiled short recollections from people who experienced the Bosnian War as children into “War Childhood”. The award-winning book has now been translated into six languages. He went on to establish the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, the world’s only museum exclusively dedicated to childhoods affected by armed conflict. Awarded the Council of Europe Museum Prize, the museum aims to raise awareness of the specific experience through archived materials, from drawings to personal belongings, and motivate adults to consider the consequences of war. Halilović has developed the museum from a small local initiative into an international non-profit with offices in Sarajevo, Kyiv, The Hague and New York City. A serial entrepreneur since his teenage years, Halilović has co-founded several companies. His passion for peacebuilding and entrepreneurship has earned him spots as a keynote speaker and guest lecturer at universities and conferences in over 15 countries.

Valeriya Ionan is the Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation, where she oversees European integration and international relations, the national digital literacy programme, regional digital transformation, as well as the development and growth of SMEs. Her top projects at the ministry include Diia.Education, a national edutainment platform for reskilling and digital literacy; award-winning Diia.Business, a national project on the development of SMEs; WinWin platform for growing global Ukrainian innovation vision; Future Perfect, a national language programme; CDTO Campus, an education project for digital leaders, and many others. Her efforts focus on launching Ukrainian digital products to speed the process of national digitalisation and to help solve complex challenges.

A Slovak parliamentarian, Vladimíra Marcinková, member of the Freedom and Solidarity parliamentarian club, is the vice-chair of the Committee for European Affairs. Under her leadership, the Committee for European Affairs was the first in EU member states to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for a unified EU response to support the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. A staunch supporter of human rights and the rights of the rights of minorities and other vulnerable groups, she has sponsored legislative initiatives to expand children’s rights and social assistance to mothers and families, as well as defended the expansion of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. Marcinková is also actively dedicated to improving the position of women and mothers in the labour market.

Alfredo is a Spanish architect, who has designed and managed more than six million square metres across five continents. Under Alfredo’s leadership, his architectural, urban and interior design firm has designed projects in a wide range of scales, from large urban developments and affordable housing townships to small temporal structures. Before founding ABIBOO, Alfredo held senior roles at Toyo Ito and SOM. Internationally-renowned, Alfredo was recognised among the most important and emerging young architects and designers by the European Centre and the Chicago Athenaeum Architecture Awards, and his work has been featured in various media outlets, including The New York Times, Wallpaper and Domus, among others.

Having previously held the positions of minister for labour and pension scheme and minister for regional development and EU funds, Marko Pavić is now chairing the Committee on Regional Funds and EU Funds at the Croatian National Parliament. Before entering the world of politics, Pavić dedicated his time to physics and oceanography. After finishing his studies, he travelled to Antarctica to study climate change developments. Among the various high-level positions he has held over the years, Pavić has worked as an Independent consultant for EU project development and has been involved in numerous organisational and educational development programmes.

Péter Pető is a Hungarian political journalist, who currently works as the Editor-in-Chief of 24.hu. Previously, he was the deputy editor of the left-wing political daily Népszabadság until it was shut down following the publication of articles revealing scandals that implicated politicians close to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Soon after its dissolution, he was shortlisted for the Reporters Without Borders’ Prize of Independence. Having started his career in sports journalism, Pető became increasingly politically engaged as the country’s media landscape became growingly turbulent. He aims to uphold independent journalism through the preservation of traditional and the adoption of new approaches to journalism to reach diverse audiences. He has also authored eight books, including novels and political essays.

Oana-Silvia Țoiu is a Romanian social entrepreneur-turned-politician, who currently serves as a Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies in the Romanian Parliament. She advocates for a more inclusive and entrepreneurial workforce, while championing youth and women. Having successfully passed laws that offer financial support for single-parent doctors during school closures, improved flexible work schemes for employees and housing rights for victims of domestic violence, Țoiu most recently put forward a start-up and private investment package. She previously served as the state secretary in the Romanian Ministry of Labour and Family. Prior to entering politics, she embarked on various social entrepreneurial ventures, including as a former executive at Mesteshukar ButiQ, a network of Roma artisans and international designers. She also co-founded Social Innovation Solutions, an accelerator that invests in educational and future-oriented solutions by engaging and connecting entrepreneurs, NGOs, academia, youth and policymakers throughout Europe.

Kirsten van den Hul is director of DutchCulture, the Dutch network and knowledge organisation for international cultural cooperation. Before assuming her current position, she worked as an independent consultant through her own company, The Change Agent, on different transition projects, mainly in the public sector. Previously, van den Hul served as member of parliament for the Dutch Labour Party, where she focused on culture, education, gender equality, foreign trade and development. An Eastern Europe specialist, she was also active on the crossroads between culture, human rights and international cooperation and worked for several international NGOs, including international women’s fund Mama Cash and the European Cultural Foundation.  Van den Hul was also a columnist for newspapers and magazines, contributed to a number of publications and wrote a book, “(S)hevolution”. In addition, she notably held the role of Dutch UN Women’s Representative.

Vlad Voiculescu is a member of the European Parliament, health policy expert and patient advocate, who until recently has served as the Romanian minister of health. After pursuing a career in finance, Voiculescu became active in public service, serving as the Romanian Finance Minister’s chief of staff before becoming the minister of health in the Dacian Cioloș government.  He has been involved in patient advocacy, both at the national and European levels for over a decade. Voiculescu is the founder of an international network of volunteers that helped over 2,500 cancer patients receive essential medicines that were missing in Romania, a story that featured in the HBO documentary The Network’. He is also the Co-Founder of MagiCAMP, which seeks to provide support to children diagnosed with cancer and other serious illnesses. For this work, the European Parliament awarded Voiculescu its ‘European Citizen’s Prize.’

Mary Fitzgerald is a researcher and analyst specialising in the Mediterranean region with a particular focus on Libya. She has consulted for a number of international organisations including in the areas of peacebuilding and civil society. She has worked with the International Crisis Group (ICG), the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) among others. She is a Non-Resident Scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College London and an Associate Fellow at ISPI in Milan. Mary has also worked on wider initiatives with UNESCO, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the British Council and other cultural organisations. Her writing has appeared in publications including Foreign Policy, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Guardian.

A British sociologist and scholar of race, inequality and education, Jason Arday is a Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge. He is one of the youngest people ever appointed to a professorship at the prestigious institution. Growing up unable to speak, read and write, Arday is committed to tackling the systemic inequalities that Black, Asian and minority ethnic students often face in education. Acclaimed for his research on race and structural racism, Arday’s work aims to overcome the underrepresentation of people from disadvantaged backgrounds in higher education. He is also a longstanding Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, a leading race equality think tank. Outside of academia, Arday has raised over £5 million pounds for charity over a 20-year period.

Michal is currently a Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Polish Parliament and sits on the Justice and Human Rights Committee. Before he started working for the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, in 2007, he was the Representative of the Parliament to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and sat on the State Treasury Committee. Previously, Michal worked as an expert on EU funding for restructuring and modernising agriculture and was on the Wola District Council of Warsaw. In 2011, Michal received the Order of Honour from the President of the Republic of Georgia, and has been part of numerous leadership training programmes. He holds an MSc in Sociology from the University of Warsaw.

Adam is the Director of Citizen Outreach and Engagement at Friends of Europe. He is responsible for the online citizen-driven discussion platform Debating Europe, which he co-founded in 2011. He has extensive experience in digital media start-ups, including the launch of the Brussels-based newswire service EUPOLITIX.com, which he merged into The Parliament Magazine, where he was the Managing Director. Adam speaks fluent English and Italian

*Consultant at Friends of Europe.

Thomas was appointed Secretary for Economic Recovery and Strategic Investment, with responsibility for scientific policy, in the Belgian government in 2020. Prior to his current role, he was well-known for heading l’Institut Emile Vandervelde, a research centre for the francophone Socialist Party (PS). Thomas has extensive experience in the Belgian political environment, having also served as the right hand and chief of staff to Paul Magnette, Chairman of the PS. In addition to his political work, Thomas previously held a managing role at CATCH, a public start-up aimed at coordinating and accelerating local projects in and around Charleroi, an economically modest area in Belgium. Thomas is also an affiliate of the Harvard Government Performance Lab where he leads research on Social Impact and a lecturer at Université Libre de Bruxelles.