European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

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.

An economist known for his expertise in finance and investments, Hekuran Murati currently serves as the Minister of Finance, Labour and Transfers in Kosovo. He has notably broadened the tax base and combatted informality, resulting in a 46% increase in tax revenues. Murati advocates for the effective and efficient execution of ideas rather than drawn-out bureaucratic processes. For instance, during his first six months in office, he led the design and successful implementation of an entirely digital universal allowance scheme for all children under the age of 16. As a former member of parliament, Murati served as the chairperson of the budget and finance committee and sat on committees related to the economy, employment, trade, industry, entrepreneurship, strategic investments and investigations regarding the privatisation process. Prior to entering politics, Murati led the public debt division at the Ministry of Finance and worked at the World Bank and the Central Bank of Kosovo.

A Dutch businesswoman and entrepreneur passionate about sustainability and innovation, Talitha is involved with a number of social initiatives. She launched Blikverruimers, a training programme and recruitment selection agency for young professionals in the Netherlands, who aspire to become business leaders. She is also the driving force behind Energieboot, a leadership programme for young professionals developing sustainable energy projects. As one of the faces of the Coalition-Y movement, a partnership of youth, trade union and climate organisations, Talitha promotes youth participation in society. She also regularly appears on talk shows and previously hosted the current affairs TV programme, Op1. She started her career at MVO Nederland, an organisation which guides companies in corporate social responsibility, where she became the youngest member to sit on a supervisory board in the Netherlands nearly a decade ago. Talitha is also Member of the Advisory Board at the research institute TNO.

A Polish economist, Katarzyna is currently a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences Committee for Future Studies Poland 2000 Plus. Her research interests include development, cultural and international economics, with a focus on East Asian markets. Katarzyna’s work also explores challenges to global development. Having lectured at universities across Asia, Africa and Europe, she has worked on several research projects for the European Commission and the National Bureau of Research in Poland, among other international institutions, as well as national and local governments. Her academic achievements have been recognised by numerous awards, including one for outstanding young scholars from Poland’s Minister of Science and Higher Education. Katarzyna has published numerous articles and books on issues relating to development, governance, integration and regional cooperation, most recently having co-edited “The Rise of Megacities: Challenges, Opportunities and Unique Characteristics”.

Lindsey Nefesh-Clarke is Founder & CEO of W4.org, a social enterprise dedicated to protecting girls’ and women’s human rights and promoting their empowerment around the world, with a focus on Sustainable Development Goal 5b: harnessing technologies. Nefesh-Clarke worked in human rights and development in Africa and Asia at Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, Enfants d’Asie, before founding W4. Named a “Women in IT Role Model” by the European Commission and one of the “Inspiring Fifty” women leaders in Europe’s technology sector, Nefesh-Clarke is a board member of the Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI), which aims to advance the work of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. She is also a Senior Fellow for Friends of Europe’s Connect Europe initiative, and a member of the advisory board of UN Women France.

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin was nominated by An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Mícheál Martin to chair the national Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, the recommendations of which were recently published and presented to An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and will now be reviewed by the Houses of the Oireachtas, with a response due from the government by the end of 2023. Ní Shúilleabháin lectures at University College Dublin as part of a programme that addresses the growing need for qualified mathematics and science teachers in post-primary schools. She is a strong proponent of girls studying mathematics and science. Notably, she was awarded the prestigious Ussher Fellowship from Trinity College Dublin for her doctoral thesis on mathematics teacher learning and won the Rose of Tralee contest, an international festival celebrated by Irish communities all over the world. Named among the Top 50 Women in Science in Ireland by Silicon Republic, Ní Shúilleabháin is renowned for her role as a science communicator and for promoting STEM subjects in Ireland through various media outlets, including radio and TV.

Matthias conducts research into 3D digitization at the juncture between the fields of computer graphics, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. He currently heads the Visual Computing Lab at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research is oriented towards the generation of 3D models of real-world environments using video and range cameras (for example with Deep Learning). One of his most well-known projects involved algorithms that make it possible to manipulate the facial expressions of any subject within a regular YouTube video – which he demonstrated on the Jimmy Kimmel show. Matthias studied computer science and his thesis on the topic of “Subdivision Surface Rendering using Hardware Tessellation” was submitted in 2013 and was awarded the highest honors. From 2013 to 2017, Professor Nießner was a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University.

A local politician from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Uk Nihad currently serves as the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton. Nihad envisions Sarajevo as a European metropolis that offers its inhabitants, especially young people a high quality of life. He champions forward-thinking transport, housing and education policies, and the promotion and enhancement of culture and art. Recent successes have included a project aimed at building Sarajevo’s first museum of modern art, as well as the provision of free textbooks for all primary school students and free public city transportation for all students.

Aleksandar Nikoloski Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport of the Republic of North Macedonia. In 2006 Nikoloski was elected member of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia where he performed his duties by 2016. He was re-elected in 2002 and discharged his duty until 2024. In the Assembly, he was a member and president of several commissions and committees, including the Committee on Rules of Procedure and Mandatory-Immunity Issues, Foreign Policy Committee, Committee on Constitutional Issues and the Committee on the Political System and Inter-Ethnic Relations. Nikoloski was also an active participant in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he performed the duty of a Vice-President in the period 2015-2017. He was the first Vice-President of the Committee on Political Issues and Democracy and first Vice-President of the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee). 

Sophie is a multi-award-winning war reporter who has covered multiple conflicts and issues across the Middle East. Starting in 2011, she reported from inside Syria on the protests and the repression of the regime. Her work was awarded with Prix Bayeux-Calvados for War Correspondents in 2013, and the Prix Albert Londres in 2016, the most important journalism award in France. In June 2017, she was the first foreign journalist to film inside Raqqa with the Kurdish forces. In 2017, Sophie also reported from Central Africa on the civil war and from Zimbabwe on the end of the Mugabe era.

Adolfo was the Portuguese Secretary of State of Tourism till 2015. Prior to this he was a Member of the Portuguese Parliament’s Committees on Ethics, Communication and Citizenship; Budget, Finance and Public Administration; and Monitoring Measures of the Financial Assistance Programme to Portugal. He has extensive experience in the legal sector, having served as a lawyer, consultant and advisor to various public institutions and private firms. In 2004 he was Head of Cabinet for the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning. He holds a Master’s degree in Law and Political Science from the University of Lisbon where he defended his thesis on The Urgency in Public Procurement Litigation.

Bastian is a Pulitzer Prize-winning German investigative journalist with the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and the reporter who received the Panama Papers ‒ over 11 million documents containing compromising financial information on several public figures ‒ from an anonymous source. Bastian recently initiated and coordinated the release of the Paradise Papers, 13 million documents related to off-shore investments.

As the Resident Representative at the political research foundation associated with the Christian Social Union (CSU), Julia works on projects related to strengthening civil society, civic involvement and the rule of law, among other topics, in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Prior to her current role, Julia was elected and served as a member of the German federal parliament at the age of 29. Her political work focused on defence and security policies as a member of the Committee on Defence, which played an important part in the adoption of the defence budget and the procurement of materiel for the armed forces. Julia started her career as a lecturer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich before joining the office of the CSU, where she held several political positions at the local level. As a member of the CSU policy committee, she played an important role in drafting the new party manifesto.

Orm is the Co-Founder and Top Chef at Clean Kitchen, an innovative cooking service that brings the experience of food to homes comfortably. Previously, Orm was the head chef at NOA Chef’s Hall, the White Guide’s pick for best restaurant in both the Baltics and Estonia in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Orm’s cooking, a mix of avant-garde and more traditional methods, keeps sustainability at its heart. His dishes frequently feature Estonia’s generous endowment of wild herbs, an inventory from which he forages his own ingredients. Following the rhythm of the four seasons of the north, Orm takes advantage of techniques such as pickling to preserve the nutrients and tastes of summer during the cold winter months. Having led NOA Chef’s Hall to its nomination as one of the best new dining experience destinations by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy, Orm’s ambitions are now fixed on the prospect of achieving his first Michelin star.

Sofi is a Finnish-Estonian contemporary novelist and theatrical writer who was catapulted into the elite of Finnish literary authors with her first novel, Stalin’s Cows (2003). It created a heated public debate and led to her being nominated for the Runeberg Award, one of Finland’s most prestigious literary prizes. Her first original play, Purge (2008), became a novel ranking number 1 on Finland’s bestseller list. She received numerous awards for Purge, such as the Prix Femina Etranger en France, the European Book Prize and the Nordic Council Literature Prize. She appears regularly in the media and is also known for her opinions in favour of women’s rights and the promotion of equality. For these efforts she has received an award from the University of Helsinki—the University from which she also holds a degree in Literature.