Luca Vecchi, 50, was re-elected mayor of Reggio Emilia for a second term in the 2019 municipal elections. Married, one son, he holds a degree in business administration from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and is a certified public accountant and auditor. Born and raised in Reggio Emilia, he has been an athlete, technician and executive in the world of sports associationism. First elected to the Tricolor Hall as a city councilor, he was group leader for the Democratic Party from 2007 to 2014. In may 2014 was elected Mayor of Reggio Emilia.
In the framework of Anci - the National Association of Italian Municipalities - he is a delegate for Welfare and Social Policies. In 2022 he was elected President of Anci for the Emilia-Romagna region. In 2021 he published the book "The Days of Covid. A community at the test of the pandemic: dialogues and perspectives."

Pascal van de Giessen, as interim and secondment director, is ultimately responsible for these services. She has more than 20 years experience in recruitment. Within Yris she is leading in diversity and inclusion. Since 2021, her organization is more aware of D&I and has taken steps to significantly improve diversity and inclusion. Before joining Yris in 2018, Pascal set up projects together with entrepreneurs and municipalities to provide people from wellfare and status holders training and the chance to participate in sustainable jobs.

https://nl.linkedin.com/in/pascal-van-de-giessen

https://www.geerts-partners.nl/team/pascal-van-de-giessen

 

Valerie Thys is a familiar face in Belgium as a host and master of ceremony with a broad experience in live events, online shows, TV and Radio broadcasting. As a native speaker she can moderate and interview in Dutch, French and English. Her fields of interest and expertise are: Sustainability, Climate Change, (Medical) Innovation. She worked fulltime as a weatherforecaster for several broadcasting partners from 2009 until 2018. As a former lecturer at Syntra business school, she helped entrepreneurs develop their digital media presence online and presentation skills. She is also a start-up business mentor at Start-it KBC. Helping clients and organizations to communicate clear and strong about their efforts to be more sustainable and looking for future opportunities is her mission. During the pandemic she enrolled in the Harvard business online program obtaining a certificate of Sustainable Business Strategy and finished an online sustainability master at the University of Wageningen and the Technical University of Delft. In July 2021 she was awarded "Woman in Media" by Wintrade Global in London.